Mark Hughes: Ferrari’s Mexico Friday pace edge is deceptive

Only the most rudimentary of analysis can be made from Mexican Grand Prix Friday practice one, with the second session again devoted to testing of the 2023 Formula 1 tyres, as at Austin.

What was most noteworthy is that no one used the medium tyre. It is expected to be the favoured tyre around here and with only three sets each allocated for the whole weekend no one was prepared to burn a set up. On a circuit so dirty because it sees such little use, the hard was by far the more logical starting tyre.

The headline times showing the Ferraris 1-2 should be taken with some caution.

Max got a little dizzy during first practice 😵‍💫#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/lHXH8yBHH0

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 28, 2022

Max Verstappen’s sector times suggest he was potentially fastest, had he not suffered a spin in his first push lap on the softs. Even with a flat-spotted set of tyres, his subsequent lap was only around 0.1s off.

Sergio Perez – around whom there is a big push from the team to secure its first 1-2 in the drivers’ championship – was also compromised with a big moment on his first push lap and his identical time to Verstappen was not his best potential either.

Lewis Hamilton’s fifth-fastest time on the same tenth as the Red Bulls came on a set of tyres which had been partially used, as he’d been forced to abandon his original push lap because of a red flag, so he too likely has time in hand.

George Russell’s Mercedes was handled in this session by reserve Nyck de Vries, who didn’t run a set of soft tyres and whose times are therefore totally unrepresentative.

The long runs were so short that the drop-off of the soft tyre wasn’t really apparent in the numbers, so flattering its performance relative to the hard, but even on the hards Verstappen was saying his fronts were dropping off by the end of his five-lap run.

With two red flags, only about half the field managed to squeeze in any long runs and this didn’t include Hamilton. With de Vries not getting a clean sequence on his three-lap run, there is no representative long run indication from Mercedes.

As such Fernando Alonso’s Alpine looks clearly best of the rest in both single lap and long running.

Long run averages

Leclerc 1m24.152s – 6 laps – softs
Perez 1m24.364s – 5 laps – softs
Verstappen 1m24.699s – 5 laps – hards
Sainz 1m24.780s – 4 laps – hards
Alonso 1m24.889s – 6 laps – softs
Norris 1m25.097s – 5 laps – softs

Practice 1 Results