Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez can be a very challenging track for the cars. Sitting over 2000m above the sea level, the density of the air has an impact on the engine performance. In the past, that worked very well for Mercedes’ rivals, especially Red Bull, that scored wins in 2017 and 2018, and put the team in pole position in 2019 when the last GP there was run, that eventually resulted in a grid penalty and a clash with Bottas. 

Valtteri Bottas has recognised that in the previous years the venue has been a weakness for Mercedes, but believes that the progress that the team made with the engine will result in the team being more competitive there this season, even though the reliability is still an issue. 

Although the car performance should improve, Bottas says that Red Bull will be incredibly hard to beat. As he said during an interview: "For Mexico, we know it's usually been a bit of a weakness for us and it feels like quite a big chunk has been in the recent years from the power unit, with the high altitude,

"But I think we've been able to optimise a lot since, so I would expect us to be in a better place than in the recent years.

"Still, on paper, we think they're really strong places for Red Bull and we've just really tried to do all the learnings we can from previous years and prepare the best that way.

"They're not going to be easy weekends, but it's never easy in this sport." 

Toto Wolff, the Mercedes Team Principal says that just because Red Bull was a favourite in the previous seasons on that track, it does not mean that it will be the case for this year as well, looking how this season is playing out so far. As he said: "Mexico was traditionally a track that was difficult for us but this season everything can change because we've seen that where traditionally our strong ones and they haven't, and vice versa so I think it's really race by race.”