30 OCTOBER - 1 NOVEMBER 2026
The Mexico City Grand Prix can stake a claim to be one of the loudest on the F1 calendar. Returning to F1 in 2015 after a 23-year hiatus, the size of the crowd and the atmosphere generated within the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez made everyone in the pit lane question why the race had ever gone away.
The current era represents Mexico’s third go at hosting Formula 1. Always held at this venue, the race first ran from 1963 to 1970. It returned for a second stint from 1986 to 1992, producing a string of famous events that gave international fame to the fearsome, banked, Peraltada. The revamped circuit for the third act of F1 in Mexico no longer features that particular challenge: a baseball stadium now sits on the corner, around which there simply isn’t enough room for a modern, high-speed sweep. Instead, the new circuit cuts through the centre of the stadium which, consequentially, forms an awe-inspiring cauldron of spectator noise.
The big setup criteria in Mexico is based around altitude rather than layout. The circuit is 2,285m (7,497ft) above sea level – that’s way beyond the usual envelope, with the next highest circuit being Interlagos at a comparatively paltry 800m (2,625ft). While the thinner atmosphere does not create a power loss for turbo cars (though the turbo itself will have to work harder), which would have been sustained by normally-aspirated engines, it reduces aerodynamic grip and cooling efficiency. Consequentially, teams have to run with more wing, and with the car more ‘open’ than would be the case at sea-level.
Our Mexico City Grand Prix heritage includes four victories, the first from Denny Hulme in 1969. When the race returned in the 1980s, both Alain Prost (1988) and Ayrton Senna (1989) took wins for McLaren, while Lando Norris secured our most recent win at the circuit in 2025.
MEXICO CITY GP
