Why F1's Mexico GP wasn't as boring as everyone made out

OPINION: The 2022 Mexican Grand Prix won't be remembered for anything other than the race Max Verstappen took an historic 14th win in a single season. The lack of action led to an unenthused fanbase on social media, but there were elements of that grand prix that made it far more interesting than has been claimed

Matt Kew Nov 2, 2022, 9:19 AM

Upd: Nov 2, 2022, 9:22 AM

A scroll through social media has told me I’m in the very small minority here. A cursory chat with my Autosport colleagues also indicates I’m in the wrong. Nevertheless, I really don’t think last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix was the irredeemably dull race it’s been made out to be.

Sure enough, it fell well short of some of the safe bet measures of gauging a thrilling contest. Sadly, there was no wheel-to-wheel scraps for the lead as per Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Austria earlier this season. Nor was there the sort of mesmeric recovery drive that Max Verstappen turned in at Spa to charge from 14th on the grid to victory. Aside from Daniel Ricciardo clumsily tipping Yuki Tsunoda into retirement, there wasn’t even a gratuitous shunt to trigger a game-changing safety car. Still, that’s not to mean that this was a total write-off.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.