John N
The atmosphere was electric at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as practice got underway for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with teams – for the second successive weekend – giving up FP2 to tire testing for 2023 to pile the focus onto the data gathering in Friday’s opening one-hour session.
1. Red Bull’s pace gives Mexican fans hope for dream result
Red Bull has been the early favorite in Mexico, with its car finding speed on every kind of circuit this year and its two drivers, Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in a fine run of form. The team is happy with the car, which is in a good spot for development, and the drivers feel comfortable with it quickly. Usually, low fuel pace has been Ferrari’s domain on Fridays this year, but Red Bull edged it by 0.01 seconds in Mexico; in race trim they fall behind Ferrari by 0.03 seconds. Given they had better degradation on Sunday, that doesn’t worry them either, so Perez can delight fans by fighting for a win on home soil.
2. Ferrari is in the mix to fight for the pole and victory
While Charles Leclerc’s crash was unfortunate, the Ferraris were very strong in the high-altitude air of the Circuit of the Americas. Carlos Sainz looked quick from the start and soon found a good balance with his car. Now he will focus on adjusting the package to work best at altitude. Red Bull is right there with Ferrari and Renault in qualifying or race trim. If you have any doubts about it, check out how fast Formula 1-75 is through high-speed corners like Turn 8 and Turn 9.
3. Mercedes quickest through slow corners
Mercedes took up their usual race-pace position in both of P3’s races on Friday. However, they appear closer to Red Bull and Ferrari than they were in Austin. Trackside chief Andrew Shovlin said they were “bumping into a few limits on system temperatures” in the first session, but got things under control for FP2 when George Russell was back in the car after lending it to Nyck de Vries. They feel the car is working well on both single lap and long run pace and according to our data, they seem to have gone hard on downforce, which has helped them top the slow corner performance charts. As a result, though, they are vulnerable on straights – so it’s likely that they will take a little downforce off ahead of qualifying.
4. Tight fight imminent for lower-end points
The midfield has been close all year, especially here, with Alpine in P4 to Alfa Romeo in P8 – with AlphaTauri, Aston Martin, and McLaren in between – separated by just 0.19s in the long runs.
Looking at the low fuel efforts, just 0.16s separates the same quintet, with McLaren showing a better turn of pace in this metric and AlphaTauri dropping back from fifth to seventh.
Key to success this weekend will likely be who takes the right steps overnight and makes the most of what is sure to be a busy final practice hour – to make up for a loss of FP2 running because of Pirelli tire testing.
5. Alpine sharpest of the midfield runners Press Tab to write more…
Alpine is in a strong position to put some air between themselves and McLaren in the battle for P4 in the constructors’ championship, based on their competitive pace in Friday practice.
While Jack Doohan’s maiden Grand Prix weekend track appearance was limited by a power unit issue, it was smoother for race drivers Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon – which meant they had enough data to prepare for the weekend.
In low fuel trim, they are the fourth best, making Q3 a target for both cars. The race pace is less impressive, as while they are still fourth in the ranking, the data suggests they are just over a second off the pace.
