The organisers of the Mexican Grand Prix have now signed a new deal to keep their slot on the calendar until 2028. Yet when compared to other recently renewed race agreements something strange stands out.
The Mexican Grand Prix has now had three stints on the F1 calendar, the first being between 1962-1970 at the Magdalena Mixhuca circuit on the outskirts of Mexico city and like Monza it was located in parkland. Following the death of top Mexican driver, Pedro Rodriguez, in 1970, the scheduled event for 1971 was cancelled due to an expected lack of interest.
Several attempts were made to revive the Mexican Grand Prix and finally in 1986 it returned to the renamed circuit, now the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after the two fallen Mexican drivers. But the state of the track, the decline of Mexico City itself, not only with air pollution problems but also a rapid and unstable city population increase, saw Formula One leave again after the race in 1992.
Mexico pay the smallest F1 hosting fee
US series Champ cars competed at the Mexican venue from 2002 and at the 2006 US Grand Prix F1 superior Bernie Ecclestone announced the Mexican GP would return in 2009. It didn’t. After a significant amount of work on the dilapidated circuit, Ecclestone confirmed that he had signed a 5-year deal for the Hermanos Rodríguez track to host the Mexican Grand Prix, starting in 2015.
Nico Rosberg won the first race in Mexico of the new millennium but in 2019 the Mayor of Mexico City announced that this would be the final year of the F1 event, due to the expensive hosting fee.
An agreement was finally reached to extend the F1 deal into 2022 and then another late that year saw three more years tacked on to the arrangement in Formula One. Now Mexico has another three year extension which in the modern world of F1 scheduling is unusual.
The hosting fee for the Grand Prix is amongst the least expensive at $25m because the event is regularly on a financial knife edge. Races paying this bargain basement fee to F1 are mostly the ones at risk of falling off the calendar. The Dutch and Belgian Grand Prix’s fit into this category so it could be assumed the length of contract was determined by F1 who in three years may find a different host elsewhere in the world prepared to pay more.
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Yet the British Grand Prix pays a similar amount, but the iconic Northamptonshire circuit has now extended its agreement with F1 until 2034. It could be that Mexico has a history of failing to make a long term commitment to Formula One and this three year deal is just an extension of their tradition.
All this said, there’s one other significant consideration which may well have led to Mexico remaining on the F1 calendar and is the fix to their financial woes. A Mexican driver in the field draws the crowds like nothing else and it appears there are signs that for 2026, there may well be one waiting in the wings.
The promoters of the race in Mexico City said after it was announced that Sergio Perez would be leaving F1 that, “as organisers, we are very concerned about the absence of Sergio Perez from the Formula One grid,” started Alejandro Sorberon, CEO of the promoting organisation. “However, we are trying to find a way to extend our contract with the championship. We are now able to provide the public with a much better show than we did five years ago, and we believe that the competition between the drivers and the bright colours of our show is enough to keep the spectators interested.”
He added it was always beneficial for the event for there to be a local hero suggesting he hoped this would be the case again after a year of Perez being absent from the F1 grid. Mexican fans have been tracking the private jet which Sergio Perez has on offer from his sponsor billionaire Carlos Slim and this week it has been found on route to Miami.
Perez indicates various F1 options
This weekend is the first visit in 2025 for F1 to North America and will see the new US racing team Cadillac launch the colours of their livery for 2026 on Saturday before Grand Prix qualifying. According to Austrian outlet OE24, senior GM staff will be present at the Miami race this weekend to “discuss their future involvement” but also focus on potential drivers they would hope to entice to the new team.
Sergio said last month, “If I find a project that motivates me fully to come back, where the team believe in me and where they appreciate my career, my experience and everything I can bring to a team, it would be very attractive to consider it.”
“That’s why I’ve given myself at least six months to get all my options on the table and make a decision on what I do next with my career.
“There are a few very interesting projects out there. I’ve been approached by a few teams since Abu Dhabi. Right now, the season has started so a few things will open up in the coming months.”
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Former Red Bull head of trackside performance, Jonathan Wheatley has backed Perez for a return to the sport. “I think he’s more than capable of coming back and very quickly getting up to speed in a new team,” Wheatley told Formula.hu
“Checo was in one of the toughest seats in Formula 1 last year, next to Max, and when you’re up against somebody like him, you have to keep looking in the mirror and asking more questions of yourself.
“I think if we look back, he struggled a little bit more with the car than Max did, and that seems to be consistent this year as well.”
Cadillac – formerly Andretti Global – have already said they would like to recruit an American driver for their F1 team, yet at present there is none available with extensive F1 experience. Further, there is little point them waiting to see how the season unfolds, given the only drivers currently competing with experience are under contract for 2026. The perceived paddock wisdom is that the slot with Cadillac is between Valterri Bottas and Sergio Perez.
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Yet Valtteri had a poor season in 2024, losing out to his far less experience team mate Zhou Guangyu. Perez also comes with huge backing thought to be worth around $30m a year to whichever team recruits the Mexican.
This weekend in Miami could very well see the comeback of Checo Perez formally announced. Max Verstappen expressed sympathy for his team mate of four years, blaming the development of the RB20 for his woes. When asked if he had sympathy for his team mate, Max replied: “100%. I do. I work with him every weekend and week in, week out. I find people have been very harsh on him.”
Currently sales for the 2025 Mexican Grand Prix are slow, but come the glamour of the F1 weekend in Miami and a possible Cadillac announcement, fans of Checo may be picking up the phone en masse come Monday.
Reputable german publication Bild, is now reporting Sergio Perez has indeed signed for Cadillac and he will be announced along with the team’s F1 livery reveal on Saturday.
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The inaugural Miami Grand Prix was a tipping point moment for modern Formula One as it became the second F1 race to be held in the annually in the USA on a long term basis. Of course ‘cracking the US’ was a long term ambition of former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone yet in F1’s halcyon days there were occasions when one off events saw F1 visit the US three times a year.
Back in the 1970’s there was regularly two events held annually when the calendar consisted of just around fourteen rounds each year. The US Grand Prix west was held in Long Beach, Los Angeles while the US Grand Prix west featured at the much loved Watkins Glen circuit in the finger lakes region of New York State.
In 1982 there were in fact three F1 races held in the states, with races being held at Long Beach, Detroit and Las Vegas. The in 1984 F1 held a race in Dallas, Texas which delivered the iconic image of an exhausted Nigel Mansell pushing his lotus across the finishing line after suffering gearbox failure in the searing heat on the final lap of the race…. READ MORE
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