Charles Leclerc felt positive in F1 Mexico GP weekend as was Frederic Vasseur, as the Monegasque did not enjoy Lap 1 and had fears towards the end.
Ferrari started off decently on Friday of Mexico GP weekend, but Leclerc was not thinking too far ahead and kept McLaren and Red Bull ahead in the order. He ended up second in qualifying and was fighting for F1 pole even, against Lando Norris, with teammate Lewis Hamilton also doing well.
The win chance was not as high considering the race pace of Norris, but there was on outside belief. It was a tensed start when he found Verstappen on the left, with Hamilton and Norris on the right. It would have been disastrous had the Ferrari pair collided, which worried him.
He did not enjoy the first lap as much and even the end stages when Verstappen was catching at a good speed. The late Virtual Safety Car helped him a bit. “I didn’t enjoy that [Lap 1] at all,” said Leclerc. “I normally quite like fighting, but in this case, being in the middle of Lewis and Max it’s one of those kinds of situations where, as a driver, you cannot do much.
“Just pray that Max and Lewis will give me enough space just to make the corner. And I touched a little bit with Lewis. And then there was very poor grip on the outside, so I had to cut the corner. But luckily for the three of us, it had no consequences. I was very happy to see the Virtual Safety Car coming out in the last two laps.
“I think without it, there was more chance of Max getting past than me staying in front. Especially with those Medium tyres, the feeling was just not there from the beginning to the end. I was definitely tempted by the two stops, but I don’t know. At the end, I just stuck to what I was on, which was the Medium tyre, and tried to make it work—and we did.
“It was close. We got a little bit lucky, but I’m proud we made it stick,” summed up Leclerc, who had questions raised when he cut the corner at the start and retained second still. Hamilton and George Russell had complaints on radio about the Monegasque and Verstappen escaping any penalty. But anyhow, it was a second podium for the Ferrari driver on the bounce.
He termed it as a positive weekend overall, backed by team boss Vasseur. “I mean, it’s been a very positive weekend,” continued Leclerc. “I think we did not expect to be replicating what we’ve done in Austin. We knew that in Austin we had done the perfect execution, but we also knew that on paper we maybe didn’t have the pace that McLaren or Red Bull had.
“And to be on the podium at that race was a surprise, but we managed to do that again and one step higher on the podium as well. So it’s been a really strong weekend. I think, as we know already, in terms of pure performance from the car, it’s been quite long that we’ve been switching our minds to 2026, and so that helped us a little bit more into this last part of the season.
“But by doing perfect executed weekends, we managed to get two podiums in a row, which is a really nice feeling.” Vasseur added: “The weekend overall for us is a good one, that we have the strong pace in quali. We are not that far away to fight for the pole position, and P2-P3 was a good result. But I think Lando showed on Friday afternoon that on the long stint he was on another planet.
“And it was, again, through it today, that for sure that if you don’t beat…if you are not P1 in Turn 1, the race can be a bit different because it’s not easy to overtake. I think he had at least 5 tenths of delta. I’ve read two podiums on merit in consecutive weekends, very different tracks, different levels of grip.
“It’s very difficult to predict because a large part of the performance is coming from cooling. And to adapt the car, brakes, engine, every single topic to the cooling, you have to predict how you will be in the race, will you be in traffic or not. And quite often you are letting a lot of performance for this. And it’s the only time in the season, the only one where we are running with so high level of cooling.
“It means that we don’t know where the others will be, depending on their upgrade on the cooling side. But overall, last year we did well. The year before also, that we were always there. And this weekend from the lap 1 we are in a good shape,” summed up Vasseur, who was not as worried about Leclerc holding off Verstappen at the end, but the re-start was slight worry knowing how the Dutchman is.
Even with the strategy, Ferrari didn’t wished to gamble starting on the medium tyre or not switching to soft for the second stint. “I don’t have the crystal ball on the pit wall, but…I think it was true for us, but true for everybody, that…If you don’t succeed to overtake the first lap, then it’s very difficult,” continued Vasseur.
“It was true for Piastri-Bearman, it was true for Piastri-Antonelli, that you can have six, seven tenths. If you reach the guy and you’re not able to overtake the first lap, it’s very difficult. I was not too worried, honestly.
“I was more worried about the restart of the VSC. Then you can always rethink about the race, but there is…the importance of the start is huge. Then you can have a good start with medium, and to have a good slipstream, as Max did, but I think it was…if you are not out of your position, it makes more sense to start with soft.”
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-mexico-city-grand-prix-norris-keeps-the-lead-after-four-car-turn-1-battle-on-lap-1.1847076761872075909
Here’s Lewis Hamilton on Mexico GP
