A debut for Alpine Academy’s Gabriele Mini, a double points finish on the road, and a post-race penalty disappointment. Here’s our Mexico City recap…

The middle race of the Americas triple-header took us to the heights of Mexico City for Round 19 of the World Championship season. The sell-out crowds and bustling paddock of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez always make for a spectacular sight, particularly with the brightly-coloured circuit displays as Mexico celebrates its annual Día de los Muertos festival.

Both Pierre and Franco got into the spirit of the celebrations, with some bold paddock arrivals over the weekend. Franco arrived at the track on Media Day last Thursday with a split jersey, with Mexico’s national football shirt on one side and Argentina’s on the other.

Both drivers had also been presented with personalised jerseys after visiting the baseball stadium of Club Diablos Rojos del Mexico, where they took part in both pitching and batting practice, as baseball fever gripped the city ahead of the climax to MLB’s World Series. Pierre then wore his special #10 jersey to the track on Sunday morning, complete with a wrestling mask, while sporting a special brightly-coloured, one-off helmet for the weekend.

Elsewhere away from track, Pierre and Franco conducted some filming with OAKBERRY, our acai partner, with Gabriele later joining Pierre for a stellar event with Renault Mexico, unveiling the new Koleos Esprit Alpine to a 1,200-strong crowd.

As is customary in the Americas, Franco’s pre-race weekend events included an appearance with Mercado Libre alongside home favourite Sergio Perez.

An F1 debut for an Alpine Academy driver

Teams often allocate one of their rookie appearances in Free Practice 1 in Mexico, and on this historic weekend for Italian motorsport, Alpine Academy driver and Formula 2 racer Gabriele Mini got his taste of on-track action at a Grand Prix event.

The Palermo youngster took over Franco’s car for FP1, with the Argentinian watching on from the garage alongside Flavio Briatore. Driving the #62 machine, Gabriele completed 22 laps, covering 95km, and set the 14th fastest time. His programme included aero testing, data gathering and run plans on both the Hard and Soft tyres.

“Firstly, a big thank you to Flavio, Steve and the team for the opportunity, it was a truly memorable moment for me,” said the 21-year-old. “As I left the garage, I was waiting in the pit lane with Lewis Hamilton in front of me, which was very cool. There were some legends of the sport out on track, people I have looked up to since I was a kid, so to be there with them was incredibly special.”

Strong outing across Friday

After speaking in the Drivers’ Press Conference about his fourth-place finish here back in 2021, Pierre was immediately comfortable with the balance of the car on Friday morning. His long run on high fuel looked promising, although with such fine margins between the teams, the focus was on optimising the single-lap pace ahead of Qualifying.

After finishing the morning session P6, the Frenchman was P8 in the afternoon, suggesting there was some work to carry out to fine-tune the brakes and settle the A526 over the bumps.

Having missed out on the morning session, Franco spent the afternoon acclimatising to the track and conditions, completing 34 laps in total. He was also happy with his long-run pace, and admitted that a small mistake during his Soft tyre running, had compromised his best time.

Small margins across the grid

It was great to see a packed Fan Forum on Saturday, which both drivers attended alongside the Ferrari duo. It was particularly good to see so many fans who had made the trip from Argentina to support Franco, and we’re expecting to see many more in São Paulo this coming weekend.

Back on track, both drivers struggled with tyre preparation in FP3, recording times outside the top ten, but thankfully those issues were resolved in time for qualifying.

After progressing through Q1, Franco reported that he was happy with his pace at the start of his best lap in Q2. However, he felt he was losing time as the lap progressed, especially through the tight final stadium sector, as the rear tyres began to overheat.

While Franco didn’t manage to reach Q3, Pierre did make the cut, but was frustrated to miss out on beating the Racing Bulls of Arvid Lindblad by just 0.036s, underlining just how close the field was around this track. Following the application of various grid penalties, Pierre lined up on the starting grid in ninth, two places ahead of Franco in P11.

Strong start, but disappointing result

After 71 laps of the Mexico City GP, featuring several incidents that brought out the VSC, Safety Car and the red flag, a double points finish on the road was ultimately undone by post-race penalties.

Pierre initially made a good getaway off the line, but suffered a cut in power on the long run down to Turn 1, losing several places in the process. With track position so critical at this circuit, and the added challenge of managing the car’s temperature in dirty air, regaining those lost positions was always going to be difficult.

Pierre stopped on lap 17 for a new set of Mediums to cover off Liam Lawson, who had started from the pit lane. On this two-stop strategy, Pierre made his second visit to the pits on lap 44, just as the Safety Car was deployed following Valtteri Bottas’ accident at Turn 1.

At the standing restart, Pierre had to take evasive action to avoid the cars ahead at Turn 1, taking to the grass in the process and subsequently giving back the positions he had gained off track.

Meanwhile, Franco was enjoying a really strong afternoon. He ran as high as P7 in the early laps before settling into a good rhythm behind the McLarens. Starting on the Mediums, he opted for a one-stop strategy and pitted on lap 34.

Unfortunately, both drivers were noted for yellow flag infringements in the closing stages of the race. The subsequent post-race penalties meant they dropped out of the points, with Franco eventually classified P15 and Pierre P17.

It was a disappointing end to what had been a strong on-track result. But before heading to Brazil, Flavio Briatore took a moment to honour his compatriot Kimi Antonelli on his world title success.

“Congratulations to Kimi Antonelli on winning his first World Drivers’ Championship. He has had an impressive season, especially at such a young age, performing well and dealing with the pressure,” said Flavio. “He has represented Italy fantastically and I’m personally very happy for him to achieve this milestone so early in his Formula One career. Bravo Kimi!”