Andrea Stella: "A strong weekend in Mexico with a dominant performance and deserved victory by Lando, confirming that we have been able to extract the performance potential within the MCL39. This weekend's performance is important confirmation of our competitiveness and provides the team with strong encouragement for the upcoming races.
"Lando had a fantastic weekend, finding pace in the car right from the start of his running here in Mexico. It was a pleasure to see Lando driving the way he has this weekend, delivering an excellent Pole lap and a commanding victory.
"There were also promising signs from Oscar's side today. He put up a good fight racing in traffic all afternoon and was able to add more tools to his toolbox by adopting some adjustments based on what we learned throughout the weekend, in terms of driving the car quickly in these specific low-grip conditions.
"Thank you to all the team trackside and in Woking, as well as HPP, for the incredible support and hard work throughout the weekend. We will now debrief the double-header as a team and reset before turning our attention to Brazil as we enter the final four races of an exciting season for Formula 1."
Laurent Mekies: "Well done to the whole Team for never giving up on a weekend when we have been struggling a bit more than we wanted with the car. Everyone pushed hard to get to a better place and the support we got from Milton Keynes and here trackside was very strong. It was never quite enough to fight for the win here but allowed us to get another important podium with Max. His drive made the strategy work very well for us, so very well done to the strategy team because we committed to a difficult one-stop while starting on a very tricky Medium tyre, his second stint was mega, he didn't let the pace drop and what he managed to extract from the car was what we needed to make the race work. He was taking six to seven tenths out of Charles per lap and we would have had a proper fight in the last few laps without the VSC. It is part of the game, we don't control the VSC, and it's cost us a nice battle to watch and perhaps a few points. The pace from Yuki was also fast today, especially his first stint on the Medium. Unfortunately we had a fairly long pitstop with him, which is not the sort of thing which usually happens with our super strong pit crew."
At the start Charles and Lewis pushed hard to try and overtake poleman Norris, but they had to settle for maintaining their second and third grid positions. On lap 6 a fight between Lewis and Max Verstappen resulted in the Dutchman cutting across the grass as he tried to pass. Later, the two clashed again and the incident was reported to the Stewards, who then handed Lewis a 10 second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage as he stayed ahead of Verstappen. He took his penalty at his first pitstop on lap 23, rejoining the track in P14 on Mediums. After everyone ahead of him pitted, Lewis was up to P7. On lap 47 Lewis was called in again for Softs, rejoining ninth. In the closing stages, Charles had to fend off Verstappen who had caught up with him, but the Monegasque managed to maintain second place to the chequered flag, also helped by a Virtual Safety Car triggered by Carlos Sainz parking his car at the side of the track. This was Charles' and the Scuderia's seventh podium of the season, the 50th in total for the Monegasque, the 836th for the Scuderia.
Fred Vasseur: Overall this has been a strong weekend for us. We had a good quali and today we had strong race pace, not compared to McLaren, but to everyone else. Lewis' penalty was very harsh as he was unable to keep on the line and had to use the grass, which cost him four or five positions. It was always our plan to make just one pit stop with both cars. I was not too nervous at the end, when Max closed in on Charles, also because it's very difficult to overtake here, so I'm not sure the VSC made much difference. Now we must already focus on the next race in Brazil and we have good momentum right now, although I remember that last year Sao Paulo was not our best weekend. However, we have learnt a lot over the past few weeks. Finally, well done to Ollie Bearman, part of our family as a member of our Driver Academy. He has been quick all season, occasionally making some mistakes, but he has had a perfect weekend here. We are very pleased for him and for his team who did a good job getting both cars in the points.
Kimi Antonelli finished P6 with George Russell P7 in Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix. Both drivers started on the Soft compound tyre, George in P4 and Kimi in P6. Unfortunately, a frantic first few corners saw both George and Kimi lose one position each. George then dropped to P7, and behind his team-mate, as he attempted to pass the battling Hamilton and Verstappen. After switching to the Medium compound, the team opted to invert the cars to enable George to attack the Haas of Bearman ahead; he was unable to make the move though and the team opted to convert to the two-stop strategy. Kimi lost position to the McLaren of Oscar Piastri with a slow pitstop, with George then losing out to the Australian on track. Running on the Soft compound to the end, the team then inverted the cars once again to give Kimi back the position he had handed to George earlier in the race. The battle for second in the Constructors' Championship continues to be fierce with Ferrari now just one point ahead with four races to go.
Bradley Lord, Team Representative: That was a difficult and frustrating afternoon for us, racing amongst a group of cars that were within one tenth of a second on pure pace and defending from Piastri's faster McLaren behind.
The opening laps did not go our way; George was one of the only drivers in the top five to stay between the white lines, and lost out as a result, then was hung out to dry on lap six and lost two more positions. He felt rightly aggrieved at the outcome, as this ultimately shaped the outcome of his race. Kimi profited where George lost out and was managing his tyres to a planned one-stop strategy behind Bearman when George and Piastri closed to within DRS range. After several laps, we decided to invert the cars to give George an opportunity to attack the Haas, as he felt he had pace in hand, but he was unable to make inroads because the tyres were past their best after the laps in the dirty air.
With higher-than-expected degradation, the strategy was finely balanced between one and two stops, and we triggered the two-stop with Kimi on lap 47 - boxing with Piastri and Hamilton close behind. Unfortunately, a slow stop cost Kimi a place, and once it became clear that our cars were not able to gain any more positions, we restored the running order from earlier in the race to come home P6 and P7. It was an afternoon of damage limitation, ultimately, and our championship fight remains nail-bitingly close. Onwards to Brazil.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: The first lap here is always a bit of a lottery with the long run to turn one combined with the layout of the first few corners. We were also aware that if we moved forward, we'd have a good chance of holding those positions to the flag, and if we fell back, we'd be facing an uphill struggle battle to recover. We sadly ended up on the wrong side of that equation, dropping a place with each driver.
Our difficulties were further compounded on lap six when George was pushed wide as Verstappen rejoined the track. George ended up losing places to both Kimi and Bearman as a result. The rest of the race didn't throw up much opportunity for either. We converted to a two-stop as the Soft tyre was looking strong and that allowed us to spend more time on it, but the cars around us covered. Unfortunately, at this point, we lost a place with Kimi due to a slow stop, Piastri taking advantage. He then utilised his superior pace to gain position on George on track too. Overall then a frustrating result. We've not had the car pace that we need to compete at these last two races. We have a week to regroup ahead of Brazil; we'll be putting all our efforts into achieving a good result there and fighting hard for second in the Constructors' Championship.
Mike Krack, Chief Trackside Officer: "The team pushed hard today after a challenging start to the weekend but couldn't get into the points. It was a chaotic opening to the race and during these early skirmishes Fernando suffered with some minor damage to his front wing after contact. Once things had settled down, both did well to manage the pace on the Soft tyres in the first stint and Lance gained a number of places from his start position. Unfortunately, midway through the race, as a precaution Fernando retired his car due to a possible brake issue. We need to investigate this issue further in our post-race analysis. Ultimately, we didn't have the pace this weekend. We will dust ourselves off from this double-header and look ahead to Brazil where there is another opportunity to fight for points."
Steve Nielsen, Managing Director: "We knew it would be a tough afternoon and that proved to be the case today. Credit must go to both Pierre and Franco for giving their all in a tough situation where the car was difficult to drive and with little to really fight for on track. In terms of strategy, we adapted mid-race and took a gamble with Pierre to switch to the Soft compound, a lot earlier than optimal, having seen other cars make the tyre work for a longer duration than anticipated. At that point, we knew Franco on the Hards would go longer and both cars would eventually converge towards the end of the race. With the front runners coming through with blue flags, we managed both cars equally and carefully to not interfere with those lapping us, while giving them both the chance to at least compete for position without taking any unnecessary risks. It has been a difficult weekend for the team. Well done to everyone trackside and at the factories for their continued efforts and we will regroup next week ahead of São Paulo."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team equaled the highest result in its Formula 1 history with Oliver Bearman's fourth place finish, with Esteban Ocon also in the points taking ninth at the Mexico City Grand Prix, held Sunday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Bearman took the start from ninth position on Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires and enjoyed a strong first lap to surge into sixth place. Bearman took advantage of a battle involving several cars ahead on lap 6 to leap into fourth position, which became third when Lewis Hamilton pitted and served a penalty. Bearman boxed on lap 24, taking on Yellow medium tires, and emerged in third position, before making his second stop on lap 48 for another set of soft tires.
Bearman slipped behind the one-stopping Max Verstappen but resisted erstwhile championship leader Oscar Piastri to secure fourth place. The result marked Bearman's best finish in Formula 1 and it also equals the highest classification for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team - Romain Grosjean scoring fourth at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.
Ocon started the race from 11th on the grid, also on soft tires, and made up a spot on the opening lap to run in 10th place. Ocon boxed on lap 27, taking on medium tires, and jumped the Red Bull of Yuki Tsunoda, before preserving the tires through the remainder of the race. Ocon faced pressure from Gabriel Bortoleto in the closing laps but maintained his position at the end of the 71-lap race to take ninth place, and ensuring a double points finish for the American squad.
The haul of 14 points scored in Mexico moves MoneyGram Haas F1 Team up into eighth place in the Constructors' Championship on 62 points total.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "What an amazing race and result. A massive congratulations to everyone at this team, they work so hard - every week, every race. The car has been competitive at every race excluding the opening round, and that's credit to the team. We knew a big result would come one day, but we couldn't force it, we had to focus on our own race, and that's what we did today."
James Vowles, Team Principal: A very difficult day. The positive news is the car was very fast, but we were unable to use it. In the case of Carlos, the race was over after turn 1 and the damage resulted in both a flat spot but also damage to our wheel speed sensors, which are critical for the pit speed limiter. The net result is that we had to box earlier as the vibrations were significant, putting us on a two stop, which led to us going 0.2 kilometres an hour over the pit speed limit, and receiving the five-second penalty. When we came in for the second stop, we tried controlling it manually at 70 kilometres an hour, and on exit, Carlos still went slightly over the pit speed limiter, resulting in a drive through penalty, which we completed. Without the drive through penalty, and even with all the other elements, Carlos was still fighting for a point today, which is very impressive. With Alex, we didn't get it right across the board, from communication, to start tyre, to how we optimised his performance. This is a blip in what has been a strong season, so let's finish strong across the next four events.
Having produced the perfect lap yesterday to clinch pole position, Lando Norris converted it into the win today in the Mexico City Grand Prix. It was the Englishman's tenth career win, his sixth this season, the first since Hungary and his first in Mexico. It is McLaren's 13th win of the season, its 202nd overall and its fourth in Mexico City.
Charles Leclerc took his Ferrari from second on the grid to second at the chequered flag, crossing the line 30.324 seconds behind the winner, until the final laps when he had to fend off a charging Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing), the Dutchman keeping his championship hopes alive, fighting hard to make it to the last step of the podium in third place. In fact, with two laps remaining Verstappen was right on Leclerc's gearbox and looked set to pass the Ferrari, but a Virtual Safety Car was called, the race only going "live" again with half a lap remaining, Leclerc just hanging on to the runner-up slot.
The biggest surprise came from Oliver Bearman in his first full F1 season, who brought his Haas home in fourth place from ninth on the grid having run as high as third for much of the race, his best ever F1 result. The excitement mounts in the Drivers' Championship with four races remaining, as Norris moves into the lead, one point ahead of team-mate Piastri, while Verstappen is now 36 points behind the leader with four Grands Prix and two Sprint Races remaining this year.
The majority of the drivers (12) lined up on the Soft compound tyre for the start, while six (Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls, Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing, Carlos Sainz Williams, Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber and Pierre Gasly Alpine) went with the Medium, while Alex Albon, Williams and Franco Colapinto Alpine opted for the Hard.
As is often the case here with the very long run down to the first corner, the opening lap was chaotic, with the leaders four abreast into the corner. The Stewards had to get involved to work out who had gained an advantage, Lewis Hamilton coming off worst, taking a 10 second penalty at his pit stop.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri in the McLaren had a poor start, but eventually fought his way back up to fifth. Sainz was the first to make a planned pit stop switching from Medium to Soft, with the Soft-to-Medium stops beginning on lap 22 with Antonelli. A second run of stops began on lap 47, with Piastri, Antonelli and Hamilton.
The longest stint of the race came courtesy of Colapinto who completed 48 laps on the C2, while Ocon did 44 laps with the C4 compound and Gasly managed 37 laps on the softest compound.
Mario Isola: "We were treated to an interesting race here in Mexico City, not just in terms of the on-track action but also because we saw the field split between those on a one-stop and others on a two-stop. Congratulations to Lando Norris, who was impeccable all weekend, right from the opening day and who is now back in the lead of the championship. Well done also to Ollie Bearman who brought home a valuable fourth place for the Haas team.
"The Medium and Soft compounds both played their part but, if one were to pick a star of the day, it was without a doubt the red banded compound. Most of the drivers chose the softest tyre for the start and for the final stint in the case of those who opted for a two-stop strategy.
"Thanks to very little wear and no graining, the drivers were able to extend their C5 stint, effectively managing thermal degradation on the rears. The pit stop windows were in line with our expectations and I believe the variety of strategies also owed something to the decision to introduce a gap in the compounds selected. The Hard saw very little use, because it was at a disadvantage on this track that offered little grip all weekend.
"Part of the Pirelli crew here in Mexico City this week, will be back at the circuit on Tuesday and Wednesday for development testing of the softer compounds in the 2026 range of tyres. A mule car will be provided by Sauber on the first day and Mercedes on the second. We thank both of them for their support."
