Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc reflected on a demanding opening day at the F1 Mexico GP Practice, stating a “slidey” Ferrari and tough conditions in the high altitude of Mexico City.
Speaking to the media after Friday’s sessions, both drivers shared their impressions of a day that tested tyre management, balance, and adaptability ahead of Saturday’s qualifying.
Hamilton battles grip and balance issues at high altitude
Lewis Hamilton summed up his practice day at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez with one word: “slidey”. When asked to describe the session, he admitted the lack of grip made it one of the trickiest Fridays of the season.
“I’m surprised how relatively close we are, given how not great it felt,” Hamilton said. “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. So you’re sliding around, trying to find grip, but it’s just not there.”
The seven-time world champion joked about another unexpected challenge: the mosquitoes.
He added, “The mosquitoes here are insane.
“I thought Jamaica’s mosquitoes were bad, but here, they’re a close second. I got bit on the top of my head in engineering.”
Hamilton praised reserve driver Antonio Fuoco, who had taken over his Ferrari during FP1: “It wasn’t disastrous. Antonio did a really great job. Nice to be able to watch him drive and have fun in my car. But the car was sliding around a lot. 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.”
When asked if the conditions could improve before qualifying, Hamilton remained cautiously optimistic.
“There is always a danger with it, but I don’t think you can make it worse, touch wood,” he said. “We won’t be silly with the decisions we take. We’ll look through the data tonight and come up with some plans. But I definitely don’t want to race what we had today.”
He added that the long-run pace was “not disastrous,” but Ferrari still needed “to get more from the tyres.”
Hamilton also addressed McLaren’s form, saying: “I haven’t seen any of it, so I have no clue. I saw a GPS of one of the McLarens, but I think they lost a bit of time in the high speed. They were, at one point, like a second, eight tenths, half a second ahead. I’m sure they’ll pull out some good pace tomorrow. They’re a great team.”
Leclerc confident despite McLaren dominance
Charles Leclerc shared a more positive outlook after a solid performance in both practice sessions. Speaking in the mixed zone after the F1 Mexico GP Practice seesion, the Monegasque admitted Ferrari had work to do but felt encouraged by the car’s overall handling.
“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.”
Leclerc explained that Ferrari’s main focus was on understanding tyre behaviour and improving stability through Mexico’s long, sweeping corners.
The Ferrari driver added: “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.”
Asked about Ferrari’s long-run pace, Leclerc acknowledged the challenge posed by McLaren: “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.”
“For now, it doesn’t seem realistic for us to be fighting with them in the race,” he continued. “But we are going to try and make changes in order to be closer to them.”
Ferrari eyes improvement heading into qualifying
Ferrari left Friday’s sessions aware of the challenges ahead but encouraged by signs of progress. Both drivers remain confident that data gathered overnight will help them close the gap to McLaren and Red Bull before qualifying.
During FP2 of the F1 Mexico GP, both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc delivered solid runs. Leclerc finished 2nd overall, just 0.153 seconds behind the leader. Meanwhile Hamilton posted the 5th-fastest time, 0.300 seconds adrift, showing competitiveness despite tricky grip conditions.
As the F1 Mexico GP Practice wrapped up, both drivers agreed on one thing, Ferrari’s goal for Saturday is clear: to tighten the gap and find the grip that eluded them on Friday.
