Heading into NASCAR’s first Cup Series points-paying race outside of the borders of the United States, home hero Daniel Suarez is ready to take to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in an attempt to win the inaugural Viva Mexico 250.
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The Trackhouse Racing driver will be seen pulling double duty this weekend, racing both in the Xfinity Series race on Saturday and the main Cup event on Sunday to maximize his visibility for the Mexican fans.
Amid all the hype surrounding the Mexico City weekend, one would expect Suarez to try to do as well as he can out on track, and what better way to learn about the new facility than four-time F1 World Champion, Max Verstappen.
Suarez and Verstappen became relatives courtesy of their relationships to Julia and Kelley Piquet, respectively, daughters of three-time F1 World Champion Nelson Piquet. While Surez and Julia are married, Verstappen and Kelley still haven’t tied the knot, but they did recently welcome a baby daughter.
Despite his connection to the famed driver, Suarez is not necessarily leaning on Max, who is a regular on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, given the track has a permanent place on the F1 calendar.
The #99 driver’s reasoning behind the same is quite clear. Given the range of how dissimilar a Next Gen Cup car and an F1 car is to each other, techniques from behind the wheel of an open-wheeled car, such as Verstappen’s Red Bull, do not apply to Suarez’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
The two machines not only look vastly different, but also approach racing in a completely opposite manner, necessitating specific techniques to become fast and extract lap time from them.
“It’s going to be a challenge for everyone. And also, you know, something else that I saw is that in Formula 1, through the esses, they go wide open when they’re low on fuel in the soft tire. We’re going in second gear, so it’s quite different.”
“I don’t know if I can get a lot of advice from Max or someone that has run Formula 1 cars there before,” said Suarez in a press conference before last weekend’s Michigan race.
The Venue Also Affects Suarez and Verstappen Exchanging Notes
Another reason why the two drivers cannot share notes on how to excel at the track is the peculiar nature of the venue itself. The 2.6-mile-long track is situated at approximately 7,300 feet above sea level. This causes the ambient air at the track to be much thinner.
While humans might feel slightly lightheaded at first due to the decrease in oxygen density, race cars develop a noticeable lack of downforce due to the thinner air. Engine and brake cooling are also affected by the same, given that the cooling effect of the air is just not as potent as it is at sea level.
F1 cars deal with this drop in downforce by bringing their highest downforce package from Monaco, one of the tightest circuits on the F1 calendar, to Mexico. This further takes the driving experience of an F1 car away from a Next Gen Cup car. The one constant that remains common for both is, the NASCAR Cup car will also lose downforce at the venue.
Combined with all these variables and the fact that Suarez claims to be new to almost 50% of the track, particularly the stadium section, this gives him all the more reason not to consult Verstappen for advice on how to approach the race.
