Scuderia Ferrari had a positive weekend at the F1 Mexico City GP as Fred Vasseur saw Charles Leclerc stand on the podium in P2. A penalty for Lewis Hamilton took him out of contention for his first Grand Prix podium of 2025. The Brit had to settle for P8.
Did Ferrari consider a split strategy at the start of the F1 Mexico City GP?
With Charles Leclerc P2 on the grid and Lewis Hamilton right behind him in P3, Fred Vasseur was asked in his print media session if Ferrari considered starting one on softs and the other on mediums.
Only the Red Bulls and Isack Hadjar went for the yellow marked tyres at the start of those inside the top 10. Max Verstappen managed to finish P3, but Yuki Tsunoda and the Racing Bulls driver ended up outside the points.
The Frenchman explained that starting on the softer tyre is the logical call when up at the front end of the grid.
“Then you can always rethink about the race, but the importance of the start is huge.
“Then you can have a good start with medium, and to have a good slipstream, as Max did, but if you are not out of your position, it makes more sense to start with soft.”
Fred Vasseur says he was calm as Max Verstappen chased Charles Leclerc at the end of F1 Mexico City GP
After a deficit of 18.5s following his only stop, Max Verstappen used his softs tyres in the final 30 laps to try and catch Charles Leclerc for P2 via the alternate strategy.
Just as it looked like he could have a go by getting inside DRS, a VSC was thrown on the penultimate lap because of Carlos Sainz’s smokey Williams. While the race resumed, the momentum was gone for the Dutch driver.
Vasseur said he was not concerned about Verstappen’s pursuit, even without the VSC coming into play. He referenced Piastri’s struggles with Bearman and Antonelli during the race.
“I don’t have the crystal ball on the pit wall, but I think it was true for us, but true for everybody, that if you don’t succeed to overtake the first lap, then it’s very difficult.
“It was true for Piastri-Bearman, it was true for Piastri-Antonelli, that you can have six, seven tenths, but if you reach the guy and you’re not able to overtake the first lap, it’s very difficult.
“I was not too worried, honestly. I was more worried about the restart of the VSC.”
Fred Vasseur on a good weekend for the team at the F1 Mexico City GP
The SF-25 has not been the greatest Ferrari car to ever hit a F1 track. Consistently from early in the season, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have had to do a significant amount of lifting and coasting throughout a Grand Prix, costing them performance.
In Mexico they all teams have to do it, but naturally it was a question whether Ferrari would need to do even more. Nonetheless, it was okay in the end. Charles Leclerc managed his race brilliantly, taking P2. Lewis Hamilton was surely heading for a top 5 himself before that costly penalty.
Vasssur was pleased with his team’s efforts, although he conceded Lando Norris was far too quick for them. The P2 and P8 has put them P2 in the Constructors’ Championship. They are a single point ahead of Mercedes with four rounds left.
“The weekend overall for us is a good one, that we have the strong pace in Quali yesterday. We are not that far away to fight for the position, and P2-P3 was a good result.
“But I think Lando showed on Friday afternoon that on the long stint he was on another planet. And it was, again, showed it today, that for sure that if you are not P1 [out of ] turn 1, the race can be a bit different because it’s not easy to overtake.
“I think he had at least 5 tenths of delta today.”
Was Ferrari’s performance at the F1 Mexico City GP a surprise to Fred Vasseur?
The biggest talking point in Mexico is cooling, of course. Altitude is a serious headache for the teams. The circuit is 2,240 metres above sea level. Trying to keep the car, tyres, engine and brakes cool is a very tough challenge.
Vasseur says these ingredients make it tough to predict how a weekend goes.
Nonetheless, Ferrari did very well once again in Mexico. After a Leclerc P3 in 2023 around here, Carlos Sainz took a magnificent victory last year. The Monegasque was P3 again in 2024 for a double podium. The 28-year-old made it three podiums in a row at this venue on Sunday.
“It’s very difficult to predict because a large part of the performance is coming from cooling.
“And to adapt the car, brakes, engine, every single topic to the cooling, you have to predict how you will be in the race, will you be in traffic or not. And quite often you are letting a lot of performance for this.
“It’s the only time in the season, the only one where we are running with so high level of cooling. It means that we don’t know where the others will be, depending on their upgrade on the cooling side.
“But overall, last year we did well. The year before also, that we were always there.
“And this weekend from the lap 1 we are in a good shape.”
