Not a full day

Friday provided some interesting information for Scuderia Ferrari HP at the Mexico City Grand Prix, in terms of performance, but not extensively, as the team was unable to complete its planned programme. Carlos Sainz was quickest in the fastest of the two practice sessions, but an incident involving Oliver Bearman, having his first run out in Charles Leclerc’s car in FP1 and then a long break red flag period at the start of FP2 meant the engineers did not gather as much data as they would have liked. Another item on today’s work sheet, in fact for all teams, was running a test of Pirelli’s 2025 tyres, with teams running comparisons between similar compounds, the current ones and those for next year. Scuderia Ferrari HP drew the C4 compound and so were able to use the weekend race Medium compound, acquiring useful data especially in race trim, although it did not work quite so much on preparing for qualifying. That will be the main goal in tomorrow morning’s third free practice session.

FP1. Carlos and Oliver were driving, the Englishman making his second appearance at the wheel of the SF-24 this season, having raced in Saudi Arabia, replacing Sainz. Oliver was driving to meet the regulatory requirement that each race driver must be replaced for FP1 at some point in the season by a young driver who has not taken part in more than three Grands Prix. They both started on the Hard tyre but the session was immediately red flagged so that debris could be removed from the track. Back on track, Carlos was fastest at this point in 1’19”407 while Bearman collided with Alex Albon in the Williams, having just set an unrepresentative 1’21”256, having completed just seven laps. At the restart, Carlos went out on Softs, going second fastest in 1’18”315. Towards the end of the session, he ran a high fuel load on the Hard tyres used at the start, completing 25 laps, so that the team’s total was 32.

FP2. Charles was back in the cockpit but he had to wait a few minutes while repairs to his car were completed. Before he could go out, the session was red flagged after George Russell crashed at turn 9 and it took a long time to repair the barriers, effectively wiping out the extra 30 minutes planned for the session that would normally last an hour. At the restart, both drivers again went out on the prototype tyres. Carlos went top with a 1’17”699 and Charles stopped the clocks in 1’17”887. They then ran with a high fuel load. Sainz did a total of 34 laps, Leclerc 31, for a total of 65. 

FP3. Tomorrow’s final free practice session starts at 11.30 local (19.30 CEST) and it will be particularly important. Carlos was able to test the Soft tyres this morning, albeit when the track was still dirty, but Charles did not do a single lap on the compound that will hold the key to the final part of qualifying which gets underway at 15 (23 CEST).

Carlos Sainz #55

Overall it was a positive day as I was able to complete our programme and work on car balance and the set-up, especially in FP1.
In the second session we had to run the C4 compound and we collected good data, particularly on race pace. FP3 will be very important to fine tune the car for qualifying as we still have some margin for improvement, but today's start was encouraging.

Charles Leclerc #16

It was a tricky day from my side. It was planned for me to miss FP1, which was a good one to miss on paper, as we thought we would make up for it in FP2 given that it was 30 minutes longer than usual. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that extra running time to make up for it due to the red flag after George’s (Russell) incident at the start of FP2.
Things like this can happen, now we are already focused on maximising our result in qualifying as starting positions are crucial on this track. The pace was there from the start and I felt comfortable in the car, so let’s see what position we can secure tomorrow.

Oliver Bearman #38

Unfortunately, FP1 did not go as we expected today as our session was cut short after an incident with Alex (Albon). It’s a shame, because this track is an interesting one and I was looking forward to gaining some more experience in the SF-24, but these things happen and they are part of racing.
I'm looking forward to seeing what our team can do in qualifying tomorrow.