F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Pirelli primer: which tyres for the Mexican Grand Prix?

Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is characterized by its smooth and slippery surface which combined with the track's altitude makes the 4.3km circuit a difficult challenge for teams and drivers.

Pirelli's selection for this weekend is right in the middle of its range, with the C2 as the White hard, C3 as the Yellow medium, and C4 as the Red soft.

Mexico is a mixed circuit with a wide variety of speeds and corners, as well as two very rapid straights and a twisty stadium section.

"Mexico has always been a tough and unpredictable race with a fantastic atmosphere: especially in the stadium section, where the drivers say that they can hear the fans cheering," explains Pirelli's head of F1, Mario Isola.

"There are some good overtaking opportunities over the course of the lap, and we've also seen a number of different strategic approaches in the past, as well as quite variable weather conditions.

"The altitude of Mexico City definitely affects the cars and the set-up, and this has a knock-on effect for the tyres as well.

"Even a high-downforce setting can feel like low downforce, so there can be a lot of sliding.

"Once more, we've brought a harder selection of compounds compared to last year: this should enable drivers to push the tyres to the maximum".

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