Turn 1 at the F1 Mexico City GP revealed to be carrying rather long lasting consequences for many drivers involved. In fact, many drivers retuned on the topic ahead of the São Paulo GP.
The first turn melee had seen four drivers involved in the battle for lead, with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc taking to the grass down at turn 1. At the other hand of the spectrum, Lewis Hamilton had received a ten seconds time penalty for going off track and gaining an advantage at turn 4 a few laps later.
Russell is adamant
George Russell expressed his displeasure with the stewards’decision following the turn 1 incident in the F1 Mexico City GP. His dismay came from the reigning F1 Champion not earning any punishment.
“I was very, very surprised to see those drivers [Verstappen and Leclerc] get away without penalty. When you look at Monza, if you miss the chicane, you’ve got to go through the polystyrene blocks, and you lose a lot of time.
“I think it would be the only solution, unless you were to just gravel that whole section. Personally I don’t like that corner at all. I don’t think it’s good for racing.“
The Brit highlighted the lack of room for passing, compared to some of the other tracks visited over the span of the F1 season.
“Turn 2 and Turn 3, there’s only one single racing line, so you can’t battle into Turn 1 and then continue the battle down to Turn 4, as you can at a circuit like Bahrain, as an example, when you can cut back on somebody and you fight down to Turn 4. There’s no track limits issues.”
Russell concludes that that with such a narrow layout, it’s impossible to properly fight for track position. For this reason, the Mercedes driver calls for a Turn 1 layout change following the situation at the F1 Mexico City GP.
“With a race start, as it’s a hairpin, you will never cut the corner. So we actually briefly spoke about it before the race weekend. I personally think that corner just needs to change entirely.”
Alonso takes it personally
Alonso shared the younger colleague’s vision, adding that he feels like the situation hasn’t been policed enough by the stewards. In his opinion, in similar cases they had previously been much stricter with him at tracks sharing a similar turn one issues.
The Spaniard took matters into his own hands at Sochi in 2021, taking full advantage of a shortcut at the start.
“When I do it myself. I tried many times in Sochi to do the same thing. And raise the point that, you know, why we don’t do the corner in Sochi and why we do it in Baku or in Monaco.
“In the first corner in Monaco, there is never any problem. We all go through that corner where there is a wall. And then everyone was cutting and then one year I just don’t brake for turn 1.
“I was P3 at the exit of the corner and for the following year it was not allowed. So yeah, it will be for 27, I guess. Because if I do it in 26, they will only change Mexico for 27.”
Hamilton calls for action
Ultimately, Ferrari’s Hamilton believes that the stewards’ decisions left much to desire and were not clear to him, especially when taking into account Verstappen’s gains.
“Not particularly. There isn’t any clarity, and I think that’s probably part of the big issue. Transparency and accountability.”
The seven-time World Champion calls for more explanations and transparency following his penalty at the F1 Mexico City GP.
“And also, the secrecy that the decisions are made in the background, I think it’s something that definitely needs to be tackled. That’s probably something that needs to be done in the background, I would imagine.”
Such was his frustration at what happened in the last round, the 105-time race winner even mentioned Abu Dhabi indirectly when talking about the stewards.
“I don’t know if they’re aware of the weight of their decisions. Ultimately, decisions can decide the results of championships, as you’ve seen in the past. Some work needs to be done there, I’m sure.”
