The Friday in F1 Mexico GP was a mixed one at the top with all feeling good and bad, as midfield was in similar pace, while rookies run in numbers in FP1.
The Friday in F1 Mexico GP was dusty to start off as conditions weren’t as grippy for drivers in FP1. Nine teams used the opportunity to fulfill the FIA mandated rookie run in the first session. That’s front-runners like Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell got only one session.
But Red Bull’s Verstappen made the most in FP2 especially on one lap by topping the session. However, the Dutchman felt terrible on long run pace on the medium compound. Teammate Yuki Tsunoda felt good overall, even though he finished behind Arvid Lindblad in FP1.
Some fine-tuning is needed, but it was decent overall. The McLaren F1 pair of Norris and Oscar Piastri did not feel the best balance wise. In fact, the Australian finished outside the Top 10 in FP2, as the duo struggled to extract the maximum on one lap pace. The race pace looked better on their side.
The Ferrari F1 pair also felt McLaren to be a touch at the distance on race pace. Charles Leclerc topped FP1 and maintained his Top 3 position in FP2, but the Monegasque reckoned that they were still not on par with Red Bull and McLaren. He feels they need to unlock something to fight the duo.
Hamilton concurred as he didn’t feel terrible in the car, but didn’t feel the best on balance side as well. Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli was on pace in both the sessions, even though he had some issues in FP2. Teammate Russell felt decent but was wary of close field.
Verstappen: “The short run I think on the softs we managed to do a good lap. The rest, everything else was pretty bad. On the medium, short run was not great and the big problem is the long runs where we seem to struggle a lot. That is of course a big concern for the race. I don’t know yet. The balance wasn’t even off, there was just no grip. That is the bigger concern. As soon as you go in a sustainable run, tyres are going hot. We were nowhere. That’s a tough one to sort out but we’ll see. You can be fast over one lap but if you have absolutely zero pace in the race it’s going to be very tough, so I prefer to be fast in the race and not so fast over one lap,”
Piastri: “It was okay. I think, yeah, the lap on softs and low fuel was pretty average, so I’m not surprised with the lap time. I think we tried a lot of things, we’ll go through and have a look at what worked, what didn’t, but overall I felt reasonable. We’ll see what we can tune up for tomorrow and try and make things just a bit more consistent is the biggest thing. Yeah, there were a few things that we identified from Austin. I think obviously it was a pretty messy weekend as well, so I think [there were] plenty of things that we found – all small things but when you put them all together they add up, so I think we’ve got a good handle on last week. I think so, yeah [that we can fight Red Bull]. It’s going to be tight like always, but I think we’ve got a good car underneath us.”
Antonelli: “Was a decent Friday, probably one of the best Fridays I’ve had in a long time. I think FP1 was great, FP2 was a little bit worse. We tried some set-up changes and in some way improved the car, in other ways made it a bit worse. A lot of data that we can get from these two sessions and looking forward to tomorrow. Pace looks to be good but of course tomorrow is going to be another day, track is going to evolve and it’s going to be important to evolve as well with the track with the driving and the car. We’ll do our best.
Leclerc: “Friday was a positive one. We are still on the back foot compared to Red Bull, especially on low fuel, and McLaren, especially on high fuel. No surprises there, we expected them to be the strongest teams coming here. But we’ve done pretty good laps. I felt quite good with the car, so we’ve just got to build from that tomorrow, and hopefully, we can gain a bit more performance. On the high fuel, we were maybe a little bit better compared to Red Bull, but McLaren was in a league of their own, by a lo. I don’t know exactly what was going on there. I hope they were on low fuel, but I don’t know. They seemed to be very strong. For now, it doesn’t seem realistic for us to be fighting with them in the race, but we are going to try and make changes in order to get closer to them.”
It was a mixed run for a lot of midfield drivers with no clear winner. Williams’ Carlos Sainz showed good pace but teammate Alexander Albon had a minor tap which hampered his one lap run. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had a decent outing as well, while Lance Stroll backed him up showing pace.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg feels Q3 is possible after his run, but teammate Gabriel Bortoleto struggled with grip on his quick run, but was in good space overall. Visa Cash App RB’s Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson were in no man’s land, but saved extra set of tyres for F1 qualifying.
Haas F1 pair of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman are hopeful of a good finish, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly noted of struggles during his run, not as much for Franco Colapinto. The FP1 brigade was led by Lindblad in Red Bull in the Top 10, with the rest eight finishing outside it.
They covered the space from 13th to 20th, with McLaren’s Pato O’Ward in the lead followed by Mercedes’ Frederik Vesti, Alpine’s Paul Aron, Haas’ Ryo Hirakawa, Visa Cash App RB’s Ayumu Iwasa, Williams’ Luke Browning, Aston Martin’s Jak Crawford and Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco.
Hadjar: “It was a tough Friday for us today. Looking at our FP programme, I think we made the right choices in terms of tyres keeping some new Softs for tomorrow, so hopefully that will play an important role. This is a very low downforce track, the midfield is tight and it seems like we’re lacking a couple of tenths from the guys ahead of us when it comes to short runs. We’ll regroup together to analyze everything with the team tonight and get some work done ahead of tomorrow.”
Albon: “A tricky Friday where we struggled a bit with the setup. The track is also super slippery out there, so it took a while to get up to speed and get some proper laps in. We’ve got some work to do overnight and we will analyse everything as a team. If we can get on top of a few things for tomorrow, I think we’ll be in a better spot for qualifying.”
Alonso: “We made some changes to the car from Free Practice One and it felt better in Free Practice Two. Friday isn’t the real picture though, so let’s see whether we can improve things overnight and be in a good position tomorrow.”
Bortoleto: “It was my first time racing here in Mexico, and I have to say the conditions were quite different from what I’m used to – very low grip, especially early in the session. Overall, however, it felt okay: I enjoyed the challenge, and the atmosphere was great. In FP2, I struggled a bit to get a proper lap in on the soft tyres. When I finally did, the tyres were already past their peak, so the lap didn’t reflect our full potential. Still, we gathered good information about the car and the balance, which is what matters most at this stage. I’m excited to keep building from here – it’s a cool place to race and I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”
Ocon: “It’s been an interesting day. We’ve learned quite a lot about the car and tried a lot of things which have been quite positive, so I’m satisfied overall. We now just need to make the right choices for the rest of the weekend, in terms of strategy, and go into qualifying with good confidence. The update has definitely gone in the right direction and the team has done a really good job improving the balance of the car.”
Gasly: “Today, I sat out of Free Practice 1, with Paul in my car for the session. He did a good job in running to the programme with some useful set-up work to give us some data to work with. On my side, once I was back in the car for the second session, it was very difficult and probably one of the toughest sessions of the season. For some reason, I just struggled with the car. It was quite difficult across the board – the car felt different to normal – and the grip levels just felt very low. So, not an ideal start to the weekend and I am sure we will come together and aim to do better tomorrow when it counts.”
FP1 runners –
Lindblad: “I think today was pretty good. It wasn’t easy and at the start it was quite dusty and a bit icy on the Hard tyres. I tried to limit the mistakes and I’m happy that the car was back in one piece! I think from my side it was good and I was just trying to give good feedback to the Team. We were trying a few things with the set up and the run plan wasn’t too different to Yuki’s. We went on the Soft tyres at the same time and I just did an extra run on them as it was a bit messy with the yellow flags. Today I was a bit more nervous, especially with the weight of the situation and Max fighting for the Championship, so it was important not to make any mistakes. However, as soon as the visor went down and I got going, it was all good. The car is fast but I always feel like I could have done better. Overall, I was happy with the session. I knew it was important to help the Team gather data so I made sure I was giving good feedback to point them in the right direction and I felt like I did a good job of that. It was a pleasure to drive Max’s car and hopefully he will have a good weekend.”
O’Ward: “Being back on track in Mexico is so special to me. All week, the fans have been passionate and loud, making me feel right at home again. I want to thank the team for putting me in the seat. We ran through the programme we had planned for the day successfully, and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to support Lando and Oscar on their championship runs with time in the car today. I’m excited to see the team finish up the weekend strong.”
Vesti: “It was great to be back in the W16 on the track today. I’ve spent thousands of hours working with the team at Brackley in the simulator to help develop the car alongside George, Kimi, and Valtteri. To get my second experience behind-the-wheel, having driven FP1 in Bahrain, was brilliant. These sessions are so important to help bring additional knowledge to our work at the factories so we can continually improve our correlation. The hour on track itself was solid. My laps were consistent and, as a team, we were able to complete our full programme. You always want more laps and to put the fastest possible time on the board, but I got out of the car really happy and satisfied with the job that I did. I’m looking forward to helping the team over the rest of the season now, using what I gained today, as we battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship.”
Fuoco: “It’s been a really special day for me. As an Italian, to get behind the wheel of a Ferrari 16 years on from when Giancarlo Fisichella last drove, is something of which I’m very proud. From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank the entire team for giving me this opportunity. I enjoyed every single lap, every moment. Apart from the emotions, it was an important day for me and I think it was for the team too: I wasn’t on track chasing lap time, I was there to gather as much data as possible and to get a good reference point for the work in the simulator. Huge thanks to all the guys and girls in the team for their support and enthusiasm. I’m sure I’ll never forget this day in Mexico.”
Browning: “A really enjoyable day being back out in the FW47! It’s a new track for me, so I’ve been learning the circuit lap by lap and making the most of the time out there. The pace looked strong on the hard tyre where we were quickest of the rookies. The medium tyre wasn’t as strong and unfortunately, we didn’t get a run on the soft tyre, but the long runs looked good which should bode well for Sunday. My main focus now is on the final two rounds of Formula 2 and hopefully securing the championship in Abu Dhabi.”
Crawford: “I really enjoyed my first official F1 session and I’m pleased with what we achieved in the hour’s running. We completed the full intended run programme for Free Practice One. One of our priorities was to try a few different items and get some good correlation with the simulator back at the AMR Technology Campus. I’m happy with the number of laps I clocked up and how quickly I felt up to speed at the wheel of the AMR25. It was also good to get back in the cockpit while I’m in the current two-month break in the F2 season.”
Iwasa: “We had a strong programme and set up today and I had a good amount of mileage throughout the session, making it a good run for me and for the team. It was quite tricky with the traffic, as usual at this track and today was my first time driving here and this year’s car, so it was a new experience, but the team gave me a lot of guidance. In terms of what I’ve been doing with the simulator and the team, it was all helpful for today’s session. It was good to feel the difference between the car and the simulator, so today’s experience should be useful for my future with the sim work. Hopefully I’ll get another opportunity to jump in the car again and do even better.”
Hirakawa: “As always, I’d like to thank both MoneyGram Haas F1 Team and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing for this opportunity. I’d say it was a hectic session as it’s quite a short circuit for 20 cars, so it was tricky to manage the traffic. It was also my first time driving around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, so there was a bit of everything for me today – exploring the track with a lot of cars, managing traffic and tires, it was very busy. We completed the run plan with no issues though, so I’m happy with that. I know which way the team wants to head, and I’m very much aligned with that, so everything is working well, I can’t wait to get to Abu Dhabi where I’m driving once again.”
Aron: “First of all, a massive thank you to the team for giving me the opportunity to drive in Free Practice 1. Mexico City is a tough track, especially with the high altitude so it was cool to experience the car in those conditions. The grip was quite low so I had to build up my confidence lap by lap. Traffic was quite difficult, which impacted my laps, but that was to be expected on such a short track and with a lot of rookie drivers in the session. That said, the objective of the session was to help the team, run through some set-up items and give good feedback. In the end, a successful session and very useful for my development. Now, I will aim to help the team in any way possible for the remainder of the weekend.”
Here’s how Friday in F1 Mexico GP panned out
