After Mexico GP controversy, F1 needs to learn from IndyCar's Portland ruling, says Alexander Rossi

IndyCar driver Alexander Rossi recently came out and shared his opinion about the Turn 1 chaos at the 2025 Mexico GP, where multiple drivers cut the first sequence of corners and leading to a furious response from other drivers who were put at a disadvantage by following the track limits, including George Russell. Rossi suggested that F1 needed to learn from IndyCar, as the American open-wheel racing series implied a solution to a similar problem at Portland.

The IndyCar race at Portland is held at the Portland International Raceway, which features a long run down the start-finish straight before the Turn 1 & 2 chicane. Before the 2022 IndyCar season, if a driver outbraked himself or herself into Turn 1, he/she could cut the corner and gain an advantage, similar to what happens at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

To resolve the issue, IndyCar put up a temporary board in the Turn 1 run-off area, which connected to the end of the chicane, and the drivers who went deep had to zig-zag around the same before joining the circuit. As a result, they did not gain any advantage and actually lost time to taking the racing line/track limits.

Alexander Rossi, on the latest episode of the Off Track with Hinch and Rossi podcast, suggested F1 follow a similar solution at the Mexico City GP as he detailed.

“Where I think IndyCar did a really good job is when you look at the Portland situation,” (32:30 onwards) “So what they did was they said that if you cut behind the turn two curb at that sequence in Portland on lap one, it doesn't matter if you were pushed there. It doesn't matter if it was an honest mistake that got you there. It does not matter how you ended up there,” added Rossi “If you do not go left hand down and get through the chicane barricade setup and rejoin the track that way, you're immediately going to the back. What happened from that point? Everyone played nice through there,” said the IndyCar driver “So F1, I'm not saying do you have to do that. You can't obviously do that for every track. But there needs to be something that's done because there are so many tracks with this massive amount of runoff,” concluded Rossi

---

IndyCar driver's Monza and Montreal solution for the Mexico City GP Turn 1 incident

Alexander Rossi came out and detailed how Monza and Montreal applied rules for corners prone to cutting and going deep, and that Mexico should apply a similar rule. Monza has a chicane after a long run down the start-finish straight, and also has Portland-style boards that drivers have to zig-zag through.

Montreal, on the other hand, has a specific line and area after the chicane from where the drivers have to rejoin the track. Speaking about the same, Rossi said,

“But I do think because a lot of the way their tracks are set up, there needs to be a more hard and fast rule like they have at Monza, like they have with track limits and qualifying that if you...Montreal, final chicane, they've got something like that. Montreal, if you cut a corner, you have to go and pay your penalty.”

Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were the two drivers in the Top 5 guilty of going wide into the first corner on the opening lap.

Edited by Pranay Bhagi