Best Sectors (FP2)

S1 - ⚪️Haas😳(352km/h on the long straight!)
S2 - 🔵RB
S3 - ⚫️Mercedes

Norris was 2nd quickest, but the car was not quickest in any sector ➡️Very balanced performance.

Top Speeds! - FP2

13km/h difference between Haas and Aston 😳
⬇️
⚪️Haas quickest in Sector 1, but lost A LOT in S2;
🟢Aston lost time in all sectors: no setup change that can fix everything

🔴Ferrari: low drag
🟢Merc: reasonable drag

What impressed you?🤔

Long Runs - FP2 #F1

🟨Mediums:
🟠McLares looks very competitive!
🔵But RB might have pushed less, as their laptimes improved throughout the stint

⬜️Hards:
🔵Williams' pace is 'interesting'!
🟠McL had excellent wear

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Max could stay full-throttle for 5.2% of the lap more than Norris: that's 4.0s! 😳

🔵RB: excellent grip, but their PU might have been slightly more turned down than others, too🤔

🟠McL can gain significant pace IF they can put down their power better💡

Which compounds are best for the race?💡

🔴Softs (C5): best potential grip (76.5s laptime), but drop-off is too high.

🟡Mediums (C4): very quick in the first 10 laps+good wear over 20.

⚪️Hards (C3): not as quick as Mediums, but wear is minimal!

Teams will use M/H.

Ferrari lacked downforce compared to McL and RB

🔴SF-23 never exceeded 4gs of lateral acceleration.
🟠McL reached the highest peaks, but🔵RB could sustain high lateral acceleration for longer➡️purple Sector 2.

Ferrari needs more downforce to manage their tyres well.

Top Speeds - FP3

RedBull recovered the 3km/h gap to Ferrari they had in FP2

Compared to FP2:
-Aston gained 7km/h
-McL gained 3km/h
-Mercedes lost 3km/h, going to the bottom of the standings

Haas straightline missile confirmed!

Hear me out: Williams was fastest in Sector 2, consisting of high-speed corners that require a lot of downforce! 😳

Weirdly enough, Williams was uncompetitive in Sector 1, made of 2 straights, which have been the car's main strength this season.

What's going on?🤣

Sector Times

Ideal lap: Leclerc's S1 + Verstappen's S2 + Ricciardo's S3 / 77.046s (-0.120s vs the Pole)⏱

Alpine was slowest in sector 1: their high drag (and underpowered engine, going by the team) cost them dearly📉

Aston struggled in S2💥

'Aero Properties' map

Upper part: higher top speed (lower drag)
Right part: higher average speed (better performance)

↗️🔴Ferrari,🔵RB: Highest top speed and lowest laptime. Very low drag with good downforce

↘️🔵AT: great performance DESPITE the drag deficit. Great grip!

Top Speeds at the Mexico GP Quali:

Ricciardo had to make up for his terrible top speed to beat Perez to P4!😳

AT got great grip in exchange, which is weird as all cars are running high-downforce anyway.

Ferrari and RB: highest top speed (351km/h!)

Merc/McL: reasonable drag.

🔴Ferrari and🔵RB were similar! (Identical top speed: 351km/h)

How did LEC get pole?
-He gained significantly in the first chicane and the set of following slow corners.
-VER didn't gain enough in S2 to offset that.

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Minisectors at the Mexico GP Quali:

Once the twisty bits started, it was game on for AlphaTauri: Ricciardo was quickest in turns 4-6, 10 and right before turn 12! He was also very competitive in the other corners.

LEC got pole thanks to the turns12-17 segment.

Ferrari/RB: minimal drag.

🔴Ferrari got the front row also by improving their high-speed cornering significantly over FP2.📈

In FP2, they didn't even reach 4g of lateral acceleration. That changed in quali: good setup, but probably were not pushing at all in FP2.

Ready for the race? Ferrari front row + Ricciardo between the RedBulls sounds epic! 🤩

🗒Notes on #MexicanGP!

- 12th pole IN A ROW that LEC didn’t convert into a win.

Ferrari’s pace (relative to competitors) dropped off massively once they mounted the Hards.
In addition to that, LEC lost his pace advantage over SAI even though his front wing had been fixed!

Puzzling 😳

- HAM gets P2 and FL, beating RUS fair and square👌

- RIC: GREAT pace thanks to the minimal cooling outlets!
5 places gained in WDC📈

-NOR: extraordinary recovery up to 5th🔥

What’s YOUR take?🤔

The WDC points gap between P1 (VER: 491) and P2 (PER: 240) is LARGER than that between P2 and P22 (DEV: 0 points)!🤯

Absolutely mind-blowing!

Mexico City GP - Race Pace (Gap in s/lap):

🔵VER: fastest
🟢HAM: +0.44 (0.55s/lap quicker than RUS!)
🔴LEC: +0.56
🔴SAI: +0.72 (despite LEC's broken wing)
🟠NOR: +0.75

RB>Merc>Ferrari>McL>AT (based on the quicker driver)

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Finally, a track where Ferrari improved in every aspect compared to last year!📈

In '22, the team had to run a detuned engine over reliability concerns.💥

Not this year, though! The car improved significantly, and the team's pit stops were the quickest on average. 👌

This year, Pirelli brought tyres which are one step softer than last year.

This improved every team's performance, but Ferrari's pace also improved relative to the other teams.

That explains the large improvement in all the performance metrics and in the quali results / points achieved.

The 'trick' that made AlphaTauri MIGHTY that nobody is discussing!💡

Teams used HUGE cooling outlets to compensate for Mexico's lower air density (and therefore cooling power): this cost precious downforce!

AT got away with far less cooling➡️Excellent downforce!

Gap to Verstappen at the Mexico City GP:

Max had the best pace in all segments of the race, except for:
>Laps 10-19: NOR and TSU, on fresh tyres, were quicker
>Laps 67-70: NOR was ON FIRE and quickest. Max was managing, though.

Ferrari's pace was much better on M than on H (last stint).