28 October 2026 10:00 (UTC)
"It is always a pleasure to work alongside the team at race weekends, so thank you to them for trusting me with further FP1 sessions"
From the roar of the grandstands to the electric atmosphere of the iconic Foro Sol stadium section, few races on the Formula 1 calendar deliver quite like the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Since its return to the calendar in 2015, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez has become a firm favourite for fans and drivers alike. In 2026’s penultimate triple-header, Mexico City forms the filling in a transatlantic sandwich, slotting into the schedule between Austin and Brazil.
The Mexican capital holds plenty of special McLaren memories, most recently, Lando’s commanding lights-to-flag victory 12 months ago, where he crossed the line more than 30 seconds clear of the competition. Oscar also fought his way forward, finishing fifth after an eventful afternoon that saw him climb two places from seventh on the grid.
Denny Hulme, Alain Prost, and Ayrton Senna have also finished top of the podium while representing McLaren in Mexico, and this weekend offers another chance to make our mark.
Our Formula 1 Reserve Driver and recently announced 2026 McLaren Hypercar driver, Leo Fornaroli, will join us in Mexico, where he’ll take part in FP1 for the third time this season. This follows the Italian's successful FP1 sessions in Barcelona-Catalunya and Hungary, and completes the third of our four mandatory rookie sessions.
To get you up to speed, we’ve caught up with Leo to get the lowdown on his FP1 session, highlighted the key sections of the circuits, and posed another piece of trackside trivia.
“I am excited to be getting back into the MCL40 for the upcoming Free Practice 1 sessions in both Mexico City and São Paulo. They’re new circuits for me, which is a good challenge. Mexico presents new conditions for me to drive in, with the altitude and low grip, while Brazil looks fun with the track's iconic features. It is always a pleasure to work alongside the team at race weekends, so thank you to them for trusting me with further FP1 sessions.
“Our preparations have been extensive. Alongside dedicated simulator work, I’ve done some Testing of Previous Cars running in last year’s double World Championship-winning car, which was an incredible experience. That mileage provided good preparation for what lies ahead. My focus will be on helping the team set up Lando and Oscar’s cars and gathering a good bank of data. I am ready and eager to get out on circuit for both FP1 sessions.”
Coping with the altitude is key in Mexico. The thin air in Mexico City proved a topic of much discussion at this summer’s football World Cup, when England prevailed in the Estadio Azteca, and it is likely to be a similarly prevalent talking point this weekend.
The track sits 2,200m above sea level, making it comfortably the highest situated track on the calendar. This impacts Formula 1 cars in a multitude of ways, with less downforce in play and a tricky cooling balance to find for engineers.
At 4.304km long and featuring 17 corners, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez offers several overtaking opportunities, with the most promising coming at the end of its 1.2km start/finish straight.
Cars reach some of the highest speeds of the season here, making the heavy braking zone into Turn 1 the circuit's prime overtaking spot. Drivers can also attempt a move into Turn 4, following a shorter straight, although getting a good exit from the opening three corners is crucial.
The middle sector presents a different challenge, with the flowing, high-speed esses between Turns 7 and 11 demanding precision and aerodynamic stability. Overtaking is more difficult here, but a mistake can leave a driver vulnerable heading towards Turn 12.
The lap concludes with the iconic Foro Sol stadium section, originally built for baseball, where drivers navigate a series of tight, low-speed corners surrounded by iconic grandstands and cheering fans.
A clean exit from the final corner, named the Nigel Mansell Turn, is vital for carrying momentum onto the main straight and setting up an overtaking opportunity into Turn 1.
After successfully introducing changes to the front and rear corners of the MCL40 in Austin, the team will aim to hone these updates in Mexico City, alongside a small selection of parts.
Both drivers picked up valuable points in last weekend’s race in Austin, Lando gaining three places to finish fifth, while Oscar finished where he started the day in seventh. Those points will be crucial with five races remaining, and McLaren and Red Bull level on points, the battle for third place in the Constructors’ Championship is set to go down to the wire. In the Drivers’ standings, Lando is sixth with 211 points, 22 behind fifth place, and ahead of Oscar on 144.
30 OCT - 1 NOV
The MP4/6 is one of McLaren’s all-time greats: the only V12 to win a World Championship, the last manual car to win a World Championship, and quite simply the nicest-sounding machine to ever hit a race track. The Mexican Grand Prix wasn’t its finest hour, but Ayrton Senna’s grit and determination to secure a podium is something worth talking about 35 years later.
F1 went to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for Round 6 of the 1991 World Championship, part of a North American double-header with the Canadian Grand Prix in Montréal
“We arrived in Mexico with a strong lead in both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship, after taking wins in the first four races,” says Neil Oatley, who was Chief Designer at the time. “The mood in the camp was buoyant, hoping to continue the run of successes.”
Watching the onboards from the 1991 race, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez looks much the same as it does now, bumps included. The primary difference is the absence of the Foro Sol stadium and, in its place, the fearsome 300 km per hour Peraltada corner.
Senna’s weekend got off to the worst sort of start, when he had a huge crash in Friday Qualifying. With one hand off the wheel to change gear, he hit a bump in the Peraltada, and the unbalanced car snapped around, flinging him backwards into the wall at high speed. The car bounced off and flipped over in the gravel trap, requiring Ayrton to crawl out from underneath. “Ayrton managed to extricate himself, thanks to the extra space afforded by the deep furrows, and calmly walked away from the car,” remembers Neil.
Speaking about the atmosphere in the garage, Neil says, “At that time, the pit garages did not have arrays of TV screens, and we only had a small monitor. The initial 'lump in the throat' when he did not come past the pits was quickly dispersed when we could see he was walking clear of the car.”
Cleared to resume the weekend, Senna was back in the cockpit on Saturday for the second Qualifying session, having had physio sessions long into the night.
“The car was returned to the garage quickly for examination. The damage was limited to the left front suspension and front wing in the initial impact, and bodywork and the rear wing as the car gently rolled over. All in a days’ work.
“The mechanics set to work with their usual enthusiasm, encouraged by their driver’s well being after what could have been a very serious accident. The same car was rebuilt for running on Saturday morning and was used by Ayrton in the race on Sunday to take third position.”
He started the race from third on the grid: best of the rest behind the dominant Williams-Renault.
Senna held third at the start, having overtaken Pole-sitter Riccardo Patrese, while losing a place to Ferrari’s Jean Alesi. Senna clinically took the place back on Lap 2, and held second place until a recovering Patrese blazed by on Lap 11. He continued to battle with Alesi, with the French-Sicilian getting by again on Lap 14, before he spun and dropped out of contention, leaving Senna unchallenged in third place.
With no scheduled tyre changes, Senna held that position for the rest of the race. He finished 57 seconds behind the Williams pair, but the only other car on the lead lap. He left Mexico City with a comfortable 24-point lead in the Drivers’ Championship, the same as it had been when he arrived.
Each race week, we’ll be putting the same question to Lando and Oscar to find out just how similar (or different) they really are. The question could be anything: from their favourite corner on the F1 calendar, to their ultimate pre-race anthem, or even the one food they absolutely refuse to eat on race week.
This week, we asked them which race on the calendar is best for food.
Lando: That is a tough one. It’s pretty split. Probably, my favourite would be one of Austin, Mexico, or Italy. Austin for the BBQs, because even though I have gone off red meat, it takes me back to when I was younger, and my dad would cook us a barbecue in the garden with burgers and sausages, which was always really nice. Italy for the pasta and the pizza – the best of the best – and Mexico for the quesadillas. I will go with Mexico for the chicken quesadillas.
Oscar: I think that I would have to say that Monza is the best. Japan is a close second, but pasta and pizza are just too good to not come first, so Monza takes the cake.
