F1 make major late change to Mexico City Grand Prix that could have huge impact on the race

A late change has been made to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez track

The FIA have sanctioned a significant late change to the circuit at the Mexico City Grand Prix that could have a major impact on the race on Sunday.

F1 returns to Mexico this weekend for a traditional Grand Prix weekend, having completed the fourth of six sprint weekends at Austin.

The home hero is Sergio Perez, who retired from the race on lap one last season after a first corner collision with Charles Leclerc.

He will be hoping for a strong result on a track that hasn’t always served him well in the past, but is one that promotes overtaking opportunities down one of the longest straights on the calendar.

Aside from that part of the circuit, however, there aren’t too many genuine opportunities to pass, with a number of tight and twisty corners largely comprising sectors two and three as well as a stadium section.

And the FIA have sanctioned a change for 2024 that could have even more of an impact on overtaking.

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The DRS zone on the main straight has been shortened by 75 metres, meaning the rear wing can now be activated from 240 metres after the final turn instead of the previous 165 metres.

While cars will have more opportunity to slipstream one another before the DRS line, the change will likely make it harder to get a move completed.

In previous years, there have been issues surrounding the DRS not being as powerful around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit compared to other tracks, given that the rear wing produces less downforce.

There will be two other DRS zones between turns three and four and turns 11 and 12, but the two straights are far shorter than the main one.

The Grand Prix will see the latest instalment in the Drivers’ Championship battle between Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and potentially now Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen leads Norris by 57 points heading into the weekend, but that gap could be reduced pending an appeal from McLaren into the United States Grand Prix race result.

Norris was deemed to have overtaken Verstappen for third while off the track, with the FIA stewards awarding him a five-second time penalty that dropped him behind Verstappen into fourth in the final classification.

If Norris’ penalty is reversed by the FIA, he will instead be 51 points behind with five races to go.