Organizing the Mexican Grand Prix

Organizing the Mexico Grand Prix Formula 1 is a 12-month job, beyond promotion and ticket sales, maintaining the standards of the FIA, the world regulatory authority of motorsport, is a silent but labor-intensive task.

Over a thousand officials are accredited for the race that sanctions the FIA Mexico-OMDAI team and work together with the commissioners who travel the world with the FIA series to maintain the standards of the elite of the sport, safety, and respect for the rules.

Jose Abed, vice president of the FIA and head of OMDAI in Mexico, leads the hundreds of people in charge of making the race possible in all aspects of the track, "The first thing we need is the willingness we all Mexicans have to do things right, then discipline, very important to be able to carry out each person's work, and absolute order, that leads us to have a top quality," appreciated the executive in a visit to the control tower, where the OMDAI team showed the work inside the Race Control Room and the Commissioners' Room, which have dozens of track shots to assess all the incidents that happen in the race, like the one that took the podium from Max Verstappen last weekend in Austin.

These officials have immediate video access to all races of the last two years in order to compare and make decisions based on precedents.

Another key piece in the development of the Mexico GP is the FIA Senator, Carlos Slim Domit, who in addition to his work as a sponsor with the brands of Grupo Carso in various categories, works with OMDAI to integrate the structure of the sport in Mexico.

"It is not the effort of one person, it is of an entire country, it was a work of many years, from rebuilding national karting with the FIA Karting Challenge, now we have Formula 4, thanks to them as well, which allows drivers to start building a career in a category that is raced worldwide and can compete in any other country. The important thing was to find the talent and then develop it, which is the second complicated stage," valued the president of Grupo Carso.

The FIA has awarded the Mexico Grand Prix twice for its great atmosphere and also for the excellence in organization on the track, a situation that has pleased Graham Stoker, Director of Sport at the international Federation, who emphasizes the integration of both parties, "first of all, they have an incredible passion for motorsport here, a great circuit, full of the history of the Rodriguez Brothers. Then the ingredients to have a strong race, you need two things: having a solid local promotion and a team of experts to organize. But what is unusual is to see how they work together in Mexico, more than a thousand people involved," highlighted the Briton.

Although presidential elections are taking place in Mexico in 2018, the FIA OMDAI team expects that the federal government, which begins its administration next year, values the international projection obtained with the date on the F1 calendar, because at the moment, nothing can be done to guarantee the renewal of the contract.