Organisers of System 1’s Mexican Grand Prix are bullish that their sold-out occasion will stay profitable no matter Sergio Perez’s F1 future, and are engaged on a brand new deal.
Perez signed a two-year contract extension earlier this 12 months, however his continued difficulties to carry out at a constantly excessive degree have Crimson Bull continuously monitoring the state of affairs for 2025 and past, bringing in reserve driver Liam Lawson at its satellite tv for pc RB staff as a possible future substitute.
Boosted by Perez’s presence, the Mexican Grand Prix made a profitable return on the calendar in 2015, with the occasion promoting out for 9 straight editions so far. It’s at the moment in talks with F1 to increase its present deal, which runs out after subsequent 12 months’s race.
And whereas promoter CIE is of course Perez’s largest supporter as he brings in native followers and ensures a pulsating environment to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the grand prix’s director Alejandro Soberon has mentioned the occasion is nicely geared up to thrive no matter having a neighborhood driver or not.
“What I can inform you is that the System 1 fandom in Mexico could be very sturdy on the whole, and clearly Checo is a superb enhancement for this. However Mexicans are having System 1 very, very shut of their coronary heart,” Soberon mentioned when requested by Motorsport.com in regards to the occasion’s future at any time when the 34-year-old finally ends up calling time on his F1 profession.
“We now have a significantly better present on the observe at this time than what we had 5 years in the past, so I feel competitors and high quality of the spectacle goes to be sufficient to maintain the curiosity within the crowd. Because the promoter of the race, we’re very excited, making an attempt to determine a solution to prolong our contract, no matter Checo.
“Everyone, after all, would like to have a neighborhood driver, as a result of it is all the time higher to have it. However there are only a few races who’ve a neighborhood driver, and this 12 months F1 on the whole has loved sold-out crowds in all places, and that is a mirrored image of the competitors and the standard of the present that we have seen on the observe.”
Sergio Perez, Crimson Bull Racing RB20
Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Pictures
The race’s common director Federico Gonzalez added that the make-up of the race’s 400,000-strong crowd had modified through the years and had raised a brand new era of race followers that benefit from the collection on the whole, partly pushed by Netflix collection Drive to Survive.
“I feel that the viewers has modified lots, it is not the identical viewers as in 2015,” Gonzalez remarked. “Lots of issues occurred, like extra competitors on the observe, Drive to Survive… and the work that we’ve got been doing for these a few years has modified the viewers additionally. We now have educated a brand new era of race followers. After all, we cheer for Checo, but in addition for the spectacle, for the race itself.”
The Mexican promoters have adhered to a aware advertising and marketing technique of focusing on native, nationwide and worldwide followers, aiming for a good three-way cut up between them. That ensures the race connects with the Mexican capital and its residents, whereas additionally aligning with the federal government’s wider tourism aims.
Final 12 months the tourism ministry reported that round 232,000 individuals travelled to Mexico Metropolis for the occasion from the remainder of Mexico and abroad, with an estimated financial good thing about $175 million USD.
“A part of the technique is to try to obtain a cut up of 33 per cent worldwide, 33 per cent native Mexico Metropolis and 33 per cent nationwide Mexico ticket gross sales,” Gonzalez mentioned. “That ensures a more healthy grand prix by way of attendance and that’s going to provide us the peace, hopefully, that even when we do not have Checo, we will proceed being bought out.”
Followers
Photograph by: Crimson Bull Content material Pool
Soberon added: “We now have another 12 months, and we already began conversations with System 1, with the town and with authorities officers to kind the suitable coalition to make this occur and get an extension. We’re pretty optimistic that we’ll have a race for a lot of, a few years.”
He identified the 2024 version of the race bought out in simply two hours, regardless of ticket gross sales opening quickly after Perez’s calamitous lap 1 crash through the 2023 version, exhibiting how sturdy the native assist is for the vigorous occasion itself.
“It was a significant blow for everyone, there was a sensation of a funeral,” he mentioned. “The followers could not watch him even for one lap. We determined to go on sale for this race 15 days after that, and there have been lots of people questioning if we would have liked to provide individuals extra time to overlook about what occurred. And we bought out in two hours for this 12 months’s race.
“We now have seen higher instances for Checo, he has made the Mexican followers very, very joyful for a few years. However I am an optimistic man, I feel he may nonetheless give us some extra.”
