Charles: “We are confident, but we’re keeping our feet on the ground”

Charles Leclerc abandoned team kit for his entrance into the Hermanos Rodriguez circuit, choosing instead to arrive dressed like a member of a typical Mexican Mariachi band. On Wednesday night, he attended a team dinner. “In Austin we didn’t have much time to be together as the flight to Mexico was the following morning so yesterday the whole team got together for a fun evening,” he said. “I chose a Mexican costume because I like this country a lot, the people are nice and we have a lot of support even if the local hero is the most popular.”

Aims. “After the one-two finish in Austin, the aim is to continue progressing in Mexico City, just as we did in the United States,” continued Charles. “On paper we should be competitive and we are confident, but it’s best to keep our feet on the ground. Currently, Formula 1 is so unpredictable that until I’ve driven the car in FP2- Oliver Bearman is in the car for FP1- I don’t want to make predictions. But we certainly won’t be changing our approach, taking it one race at a time, focussing on ourselves, applying ourselves carefully to the various stages of the weekend and after that we can look at the classification and see where we stand.”

Tough on the car. The Monegasque then spoke about the peculiarities of this race. “For us drivers I wouldn’t say this is a demanding track, but it is for the cars. We are racing at altitude in rarified air and cooling all the car components is critical. When working on set-up you have to try and match the need to ensure reliability as much as possible without sacrificing performance too much. As for the feeling when you drive, the first few laps are a bit strange, because you are running a Monaco set-up but the feeling is similar to that at Monza, but you get used to it and learn to live with it.”