Ranked: Every F1 driver who hailed from Mexico ahead of the Mexican GP

In 1961, a 19-year-old named Ricardo Rodríguez made history by becoming the first Mexican driver to compete in a Formula 1 Grand Prix. Only a handful of his countrymen have followed suit in the six subsequent decades, but they’ve built a strong foundation for F1’s supreme popularity in the country.

As the Mexico City Grand Prix approaches, we’re taking a look back at the six Mexican racers who have competed in Formula 1 in order to rank them based on how important they’ve been for the trajectory of the sport.

Mexican Grand Prix: Ranking all F1 drivers from Mexico

6. Moisés Solana

Not much is known about Moisés Solana, the third Mexican driver to compete in F1. His first of eight entries came at the 1963 Mexican Grand Prix, where he contested a BRM for the privateer Scuderia Centro Sud team.

Between 1963 and 1968, Solana solely contested events in the Americas. He competed in Mexico every year for the duration of his brief F1 career and also made forays to the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen in 1965 and 1967 — both times with Team Lotus. His best finish was a 10th place at the 1964 Mexican Grand Prix.

Solana earned a place in motorsport history for a few reasons. Until Pastor Maldonado selected it as his permanent number, Solana was the only Grand Prix driver to race under the No. 13. He won the first-ever points-scoring USRRC Group 7 Series international race in Mexico City, and holds all the records in Mexican road race categories.

Sadly, he was killed during a hillclimb in 1969. The first chicane at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is named after Moisés Solana, and his family is still active in racing and manufacturing one-off sports cars.

5. Esteban Gutiérrez

Hailing from Monterrey, Mexico, Esteban Gutiérrez competed in Formula 1 with 2013, 2014, and 2016 for Sauber and Haas, taking home a best finish of seventh at the 2013 Japanese Grand Prix. Despite promising results in both European and US Formula BMW series as well as GP3, Gutiérrez failed to make a splash in F1.

Unfortunately, he arrived on the F1 scene with a series of Ferrari-engined cars during an era of Renault and Mercedes dominance, and he never had a chance at progressing beyond midfield and backmarker teams.

When his F1 career came to an end, Gutiérrez dabbled in both Formula E and IndyCar before heading off to endurance racing. He remains the most recent Mexican racer to debut in Formula 1.

4. Héctor Rebaque

Héctor Rebaque from Mexico City has had a diverse career in the motorsport world. When he debuted at the 1977 Belgian Grand Prix, he became the first Mexican racer to compete in the sport since Ricardo Rodríguez’s final race in 1971. He got his start with Hesketh Racing before fielding two seasons in his own Team Rebaque outfit in 1978 and 1979.

His best finishes came the following two years when he joined the Parmalat Racing Team, taking best finishes of fourth at Imola, Silverstone, and Hockenheim.

In 1982, Rebaque jetted off for a handful of races in the CART Series, where he took a victory at Road America. His final race was the 1983 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch; after that, he retired and began to pursue a career in architecture.

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3. Sergio Pérez

With 276 Grand Prix starts and six wins under his belt, Sergio Pérez is by far the most successful Mexican racer to join the Formula 1 grid. Born in Guadalajara, Pérez got his start behind the wheel of a go-kart in 1996, when he was just six years old, and rapidly progressed through the ranks of North American series like Skip Barber before heading to Europe.

He took a championship in the 2007 British Formula 3 International series, followed by a second place in 2010’s GP2 season, which was enough to launch him into the Formula 1 world in 2011 at just 21 years old.

Pérez started out with Sauber before moving to McLaren and then establishing himself as a critical part of the Force India lineup, competing with the team and its subsidiary Racing Point for seven years before making a move to Red Bull Racing.

It hasn’t been easy for Pérez. His family committed ample time, money, and resources to get his racing career off the ground, and once he made it to F1, the teams for which he raced — such as Force India — were often in dire straits. Even his move to Red Bull has been plagued by harsh comparisons to teammate Max Verstappen.

Still, he’s defined a strong legacy for himself in the sport of Formula 1, setting the bar for what a driver from Mexico can do in the sport.

2. Ricardo Rodríguez

At first glance, Ricardo Rodríguez’s five Formula 1 starts may not look particularly impressive, but the racer from Mexico City made history by becoming the first Mexican racer to ever compete in an F1 event.

A child cycling champion who made the move to motorcycles before hitting four wheels, Rodríguez was a top-tier driver by the time he was 16 — at which point his entry to the 24 Hours of Le Mans was refused based on his age alone.

At the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, after becoming the youngest driver to stand on the podium at Le Mans, he became the youngest driver to compete in F1 when he was given a guest drive from Ferrari — a record that wouldn’t be beaten until Max Verstappen joined the F1 grid.

Rodríguez impressed in his first race, swapping the lead with Phil Hill and Richie Ginther until a fuel pump failure dropped him out of the event. The following year, he was offered a full works drive with Ferrari, featuring ample opportunities in sports car racing and a handful of outings in Grands Prix, where he was already considered a World Champion in waiting.

Sadly, during an unofficial practice session at the non-championship 1962 Mexican Grand Prix the right rear suspension of his Lotus failed. Rodríguez was killed instantly upon impact with the barriers. To this day, at 20 years old, he remains the youngest F1 driver to die.

Despite that, his legacy in the sport extends far beyond his handful of outings in a Grand Prix car, as he effectively established Mexico as a country worth considering in the international racing scene.

1. Pedro Rodríguez

Ricardo wasn’t the only member of the Rodríguez family to compete in Formula 1, though he was the first. His elder brother Pedro first entered F1 in 1963, after the death of the younger Ricardo.

Both Pedro and Ricardo had grown up competing on two wheels before moving to four, and after Ricardo’s death, Pedro determined to continue competing in his brother’s honor.

Though the elder Rodríguez only won two races in Formula 1, he was considered a massively important star thanks to his success in sports car racing. He won the 1968 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 1970 and 1971 24 Hours of Daytona, and so many more events while competing with Porsche.

His first victory in Formula 1 came in South Africa in 1967 — though celebrations were marred when organizers failed to produce a record of the Mexican national anthem and instead played the Mexican hat dance instead. From that day on, Pedro Rodríguez always traveled with a Mexican flag and a record of the Mexican national album.

He, too, was killed in a racing accident while contesting an Interserie sports car race at the Norisring in 1971. He was 31 years old.

Together, the Rodríguez brothers paved the way for Mexican motorsport, demanding recognition on an international stage and sowing the seeds for the massively passionate fanbase the country is known for today.

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