Charles Leclerc says Ferrari had as strong start to the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend and can compete with a struggling Max Verstappen in race trim, but believes McLaren could be out of reach.
FP1 saw nine rookies taking part and Leclerc topped the session, while Verstappen – who sat out the first hour – was quickest over one lap in FP2. Leclerc believes the race pace compared to Red Bull looked competitive but he points to McLaren’s high fuel pace as particularly strong.
“Friday was a positive one,” Leclerc said. “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 team coming here, but we’ve done pretty good laps.
“I felt quite good with the car. We’ve just got to build from that tomorrow and hopefully we can gain a little 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 lot, so I don’t know exactly what is going on there. I hope they were on low fuel, but I don’t know.
“They seem to be very strong, so 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 be closer to them.”
Leclerc was second in FP2 and teammate Lewis Hamilton was also in the top five, but the seven-time world champion also wasn’t happy with the handling of his car.
“I’m surprised how relatively close we are, given how not great it felt,” Hamilton said. “I mean, every time you come here, the grip is… Because of the altitude, we’re all running pretty high downforce, but it feels lower than Monza. You’re sliding around, trying to find grip, but it’s just not there.
“The balance is very open. I’ve got a lot of work to do overnight to try and figure out how to find a more streamlined balance.
“We’ll look through the data tonight and then try and come up with some plans, but I definitely don’t want to race what we had today. The long run balance wasn’t disastrous, but it’s [a matter of getting] more from the tires. I know there’s more pace in the car.”
Verstappen backed up Leclerc’s opinion that the Red Bull race pace is lacking at this stage of the weekend, saying his only strength had been on the qualifying simulation.
“A bit of a long wait for the day, but the short run, I think on the soft, we managed to do a good lap,” Verstappen said. “The rest, everything else was pretty bad. On the medium, the 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.
“The balance wasn’t even off. It was just no grip, which that is the bigger concern. As soon as you go on a sustainable run, tires are going hot. Yeah, we were nowhere. That’s a tough one to sort out as well, but we’ll see.
“You’re not going to win the race like that. You can be fast over one lap, but if you have absolutely zero pace in the race, then it’s going to be very tough. I prefer to be fast in the race and not so fast over one lap.”
At McLaren, it was Lando Norris who appeared the more comfortable despite missing FP1, although he’s wary of how many other teams could be a threat given the initial low fuel gaps.
“I think we’re in a reasonable place, for sure,” Norris said. “I feel like I got up to speed very quickly, actually. I was quite surprised. My first lap was pretty good, and the second lap was a good step.
“Felt like I found the limit quickly … which is just holding us back a bit. Not that it was a bad day, but normally we’re very good on a Friday, and then everyone catches up on Saturday. We’re already a little bit behind, so we have definitely some work to do tonight.
“They fixed [the power surges] straight away. It’s just the balance of the car is just a bit all over the place – same as the last few weeks, just single-lap stuff. We’re struggling at the minute, so we’re working hard. We’re trying everything we can, so we’ll see what we can do and see what we can find.”