Only so many race fans have the privilege of cheering on a home driver at their home grand prix, and the Mexican fans packed into the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez weren’t wasting even a second of their chance during Friday practice.
Not only was Sergio Perez getting cheers every time he motored into the famous Foro Sol, the stadium section fashioned from a disused baseball grandstand, but the crowd was sent into raptures at even the glimpse of their man on the big screens.
Even Perez’s visage in the F1 opening titles shown before each session got some customary applause.
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So it was the least Perez could do but be competitive, albeit based on some rather limited Friday running, generating enough hope that he could be on for at least a podium, if not more.
But it’s very early days, and the data from Friday was more limited than usual. Pirelli’s control over FP2 for another tyre test meant the usual race simulations were largely lacking, with those squeezed around disruptions in FP1 unlikely to be quite so representative by the time teams tinker with the cars before FP3.
But what we can say is that Ferrari and Red Bull Racing look closely matched at this stage, and Mercedes is likely in the mix too.
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc topped FP1 on pure pace, split by just 0.046 seconds. That was more than was separating Perez from Max Verstappen — the Red Bull Racing teammates set identical times just 0.12 seconds behind the lead Ferrari.
They were all closely matched in the brief race simulation stints they undertook too.
Lewis Hamilton had his quick lap on softs disrupted by a red flag, but his second attempt on used tyres yielded a lap only 0.142 seconds off the pace. He didn’t, however, get around to stringing together a stint, so his theoretical race pace is unclear.
But George Russell, who skipped FP1 to give Nyck de Vries his mandatory run, topped FP2 with a lap that was almost 0.8 second quicker than Sainz’s best effort in the first hour. It’s roughly in line with historical levels of track evolution on what’s always a dusty, slippery circuit at the start of the weekend, being a converted public road, and that gave the Briton confidence that Mercedes was in the mix.
“I’d like to think it’s definitely [a] podium [that’s] possible at least,” he said, per the F1 website. “It’s probably one of if not our best Friday of the year.”
It’s still early days though. Final practice will give us a much clearer picture of what to expect for qualifying and the always-tricky race.
A TOUGH TRACK FOR MACHINERY
The low air density of Mexico City, which sits at around 2.2 kilometres above sea level, causes all sorts of problem for Formula 1 cars, which aren’t built for best performance in the thinner atmosphere.
The lack of downforce produced by the cars, despite them running what would normally be their max-downforce bodywork, was obvious to see in the slips and slides experienced by all drivers as they struggled for traction.
This generation of car is predisposed to understeer at low speed, and the low air density means pretty much every corner of this circuit could be classified as slow given the lack of air rushing through the aerodynamic components, regardless of how fast the car is actually travelling. Understeer is therefore a significant problem to address via set-up in FP3.
But it’s also trying for the brakes and power units given the 22 per cent reduction in cooling, and you may have noticed most cars were running with maximum cooling louvres to cope with the conditions.
The turbocharger is also put under higher strain here as it attempts to maintain pressure inside the internal combustion engine — again, without the benefit of regular cooling.
Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson both encountered brake problems during FP1, with Lawson’s brakes spectacularly catching fire after he stopped on track with a hydraulics failure near the end of the session.
Pietro Fittipaldi and Jack Doohan subsequently retired with engine problems in Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon’s respective cars.
Magnussen will serve a five-place penalty for an engine component change, while Ocon has so far got away without a penalty by switching to the power unit he used last weekend.
Managing cooling is always a major part of getting through the Mexico City weekend, and whoever can deal with it best could find themselves with an advantage in the race.
A LESS COSTLY CRASH THAN EXPECTED IN PIRELLI-CONTROLLED FP2
Crashing out of FP2 is normally a major blow to a race weekend given it’s when set-up changes from FP1 are validated and race simulations are undertaken. It’s when we get the clearest sense of the competitive order.
But given Pirelli commandeered the entire session — and extended it by 30 minutes — for a 2023 tyre test, Charles Leclerc’s damaging smash won’t be paid for beyond some long hours by his mechanics to get the car fixed overnight.
As was the case last Friday in Austin, the Pirelli-focused tyre test was largely useless to the teams for the rest of the weekend. Set-up changes are banned and each driver has their run plan set by the tyre manufacturer.
It puts more focus on FP1 and a lot more emphasis on FP3, which Leclerc will presumably have no trouble entering.
The only concern for the Monegasque is that the crash may have been heavy enough to cause him gearbox or engine problems, though Ferrari said it didn’t expect any penalties coming for the repairs — a good thing considering how competitive the frontrunning field looks at this early stage of the weekend.
Hamilton not planning on retiring | 01:17
COST CAP DOMINATES FRIDAY DISCUSSION
Off-track was unsurprisingly dominated by the pre-practice announcement that Red Bull Racing had agreed to serve a penalty for breaking the budget cap last season.
Under the rules, part of accepting an agreement also means admitting to guilt — a surely chastening experience after Horner has spent the last month accusing rivals or defaming him and the team, even after the FIA found RBR had broken the cap three weeks ago.
The team was found to have “inaccurately excluded and/or adjusted costs amounting to a total of £5,607,000” across 13 different accounting items.
That meant the team broke the cap by £1,864,000 — around A$3,376,000, or 1.6 per cent of the total cap.
Red Bull Racing has accepted a punishment of a fine of almost A$11 million and 10 per cent reduction on development time.
For reference, F1 has a sliding scale of development allowance based on championship position. The championship-winning team gets the least amount of time in the wind tunnel or using computer simulation software, while the lowest placed team gets the most.
The interval between each team is roughly 7 per cent.
A 10 per cent reduction on Red Bull Racing’s allowance means that interval effectively more than doubles.
Based on the current championship standings, RBR will get 19 per cent less development time than Ferrari and 27 per cent less than Mercedes.
Williams, in last place, will get more than 82 per cent of Red Bull Racing’s time in the wind tunnel, up from 64 per cent.
It also means that even if Red Bull Racing were to drop to second in the championship, it would still get less development time that whichever team is at the top of the standings.
Red Bull agree to cost cap breach deal | 03:07
The reduction runs for 12 months from 26 October, which means it will affect development on next year’s car and the team’s 2024 design.
Christian Horner described it as “draconian” for these reasons, and though some teams would have preferred something harsher — the team’s future cost cap allowances haven’t been reduced, for example — there’s no doubting that the penalty will sting. It will have a material impact on how the team does business for the next 12 months.
Important too is that it ought to be enough of a penalty to prevent other teams from gambling on a breach in exchange for a penalty.
Toto Wolff, his Mercedes team the most affected by the breach given the closeness of last year’s title fight, believed the penalty itself was on the lenient side but was sufficient when weighed with the reputational damage done to the team.
“I think what you see is that beyond the sporting penalty and the financial fine there’s also a reputational damage, and in a world of transparency and good governance, that’s just not on anymore,” he told Sky Sports.
Most important, however, was that the FIA stood firm in ensuring the team wore a penalty.
“They didn’t bat an eyelid,” Wolff said. “They did just follow the process … I think they were absolutely good in assessing [it]. I know how rigorous they were with us all throughout the year.
“That was a difficult process, and when I’m seeing 13 positions that were wrong, with us it wasn’t the case.
“It’s just good to see there is a penalty, whether we deem it to be too low or too high.”
