Mexican Grand Prix secures new F1 deal

The future of the Mexican Grand Prix has been resolved, having agreed a new three-year deal with Formula 1 to continue hosting the event until 2022. 

Mexico’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit returned to the F1 calendar in 2015 and quickly established itself as one of the most popular and vibrant races.

The continuation of the race beyond the expiry of its contract at the end of the 2019 season had been in doubt after the country’s president suggested earlier this year that funding would be cut to support the construction of a new railway project in Mexico City. 

But the situation has increasingly looked more positive in recent weeks after an agreement was reached between the race organisers and F1, with the mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, confirming the news on a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday. 

With the Mexican GP retaining its place on the calendar, F1 looks set to have an unprecedented 22-race season in 2020 with the Spanish Grand Prix hopeful of striking a fresh deal, as well as the addition of new events in Vietnam and the Netherlands. 

The German Grand Prix at Hockenheim is the only race set to be dropped from the existing calendar. 

“We are pleased to have renewed our partnership with Mexico City, which will now host the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix until at least 2022," said F1 CEO Chase Carey. 

"Ever since it returned to the championship calendar in 2015, this event has always proved to be amazingly popular with the public and fans, not just in Mexico, but also around the world.

"Proof of this is the fact that the race promoter has won the FIA award for the best event no fewer than four years in a row and, in those four years, over 1,3 million spectators have attended the Grand Prix.

"The Grand Prix has also been an important economic driver for the city, reinforcing its credentials as a centre for tourism. I would like to thank the Mayor, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and the Date 8 August 2019 entire government of Mexico City for all their efforts in ensuring that Formula 1 continues in Mexico and I look forward to seeing another big crowd of fans at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez from 25 to 27 October for the FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE MEXICO 2019.”

Claudia Sheinbaum, Mayor of Mexico City, added: “The presence of Formula 1 in the city for further three more years, was achieved for the first time through a new financing model in which public resources are not used. Previously the Federal Government collaborated with the paymentfor the event.

"The Mexico City government will be an intermediary, creating a trust that will raise the private investment required to deliver this international event. The price of the tickets will remain the same as in previous years.”

Mexico has been the venue which has decided the destination of the last two F1 drivers' world titles, with Lewis Hamilton triumphing on both occassions in 2017 and 2018.