Norris unsure over McLaren’s new floor as Ferrari start well and Red Bull hit trouble · RaceFans

So often in 2024, the common theme among drivers’ feedback at the end of Friday has been “we can’t be sure where we are.”

After the opening day of practice in Mexico City, they might have added to that: “no really, we have absolutely no idea…”

Although teams were given an extra 30 minutes of potential track time, making this the longest Friday of the season, the drivers appeared to gain little in the way of insight about their cars. This was largely due to the fact that teams were heavily restricted in second practice, forced to run specific tyres in specific run plans without any adjustments to car set-up.

Red Bull, Mercedes and McLaren all came away from the first day of running with their eyebrows furrowed in concern – for very different reasons. At Red Bull, Max Verstappen effectively had minimal meaningful running across the entire day as a recurring power unit problem interrupted his first practice session. Then, as he rejoined the circuit for the second session, he found the problem had not been resolved, forcing him back into the garage for an early end to his day. Verstappen branded it a “day to forget” for his team.

At Mercedes, George Russell’s mechanics were left facing a second late night of repairs in the space of a week after their driver crashed heavily into the TecPro barriers early in the second session, while team mate Lewis Hamilton’s only session in the car was restricted by the tyre test runs he had to make. He ended the session seventh-quickest, although that ultimately means little.

“We actually couldn’t change anything on the car,” Hamilton explained. “So the car was the same from the beginning to the end. “I know what I need to fix – whether or not we can actually do that, we’ll see. But it didn’t feel terrible.”

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At McLaren, the day was all about the majorly revised floor the team has brought to bolster Lando Norris’ arsenal for the final five rounds of the championship. First practice stand-in driver Pato O’Ward was trusted enough to have the floor installed on his car midway through his cameo appearance before Norris took his car back for the extended second session. Although it came with the caveat that he had been restricted in what he could do in second practice, Norris’s initial assessment of the car on Friday was that it was “not great”.

“Just a lack of laps compared to most others,” he said. “Playing a little bit of catch-up. Just not a great feeling. It’s just hard to get a good feeling around the circuit, just because it’s very low grip.”

Perhaps more telling was Norris’s response to being asked about the data comparisons between his new floor and the previous spec run by his team mate.

“I mean, [it was] good for a back-to-back,” he replied, “but it’s not really much better, so…”

But amid the frustrations and the uncertainty at the front of the field, the team with the most reason for confidence was Ferrari. Not just because of the nature of their excellent one-two victory last weekend in Austin, but because Carlos Sainz Jnr set the fastest time of the day on C4 compound tyres that was almost two tenths of a second quicker than Piastri’s best time on the softer C5 tyres.

Despite some early headaches for the team after Charles Leclerc’s car was damaged in the opening session, when it was occupied by Oliver Bearman and hit by a spinning Alexander Albon, Sainz gave Ferrari something to feel confident about heading in the final two days of the weekend.

“We hit the ground running in FP1 with a good car, a good set-up,” Sainz said. “And then in all FP1 and FP2, we just worked in fine tuning of a couple of things, nothing major. So we’re quite happy with how everything feels. Especially long runs feel good.

“Race pace especially, I was very comfortable with the car, comfortable with the deg. That’s positive going into Sunday.”

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Although the roulette wheel that is 2024’s form book appears to have landed on Ferrari so far in North America, Sainz still expects the team will have a lot of competition from their rivals in qualifying and will need to be at the top of their game to succeed.

“I think when it comes to qualifying, we’ll have a lot of challenge from our competitors,” he admitted. “Over one lap, it will be a tight battle.”

Because of the impact of the unusual tyre test on Friday, the entire field of 20 drivers head into the last two days of the weekend with the exact same suite of compounds available to them – one set of hard tyres, two mediums and six soft sets for third practice, qualifying and the grand prix. The final 60 minute practice session on Friday afternoon will therefore be especially critical. Not just for drivers looking to perfect their set-ups ahead of qualifying, but for those like Verstappen who have amassed not nearly as many laps as they would have hoped to by this stage of the weekend.

The fine margins expected in qualifying could make getting a tow down the main straight critical to deciding whether a driver scores pole or misses the front row entirely. Expect Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri to be called in to play wingmen for their team mates in the end of Q3.

Last year Ferrari locked out the front row of the grid in Mexico City with both Leclerc and Sainz denying Verstappen pole by less than a tenth of a second. Although even the teams themselves seem unsure what to expect in terms of who will end up on top on Saturday, the only thing certain is that it will be another extremely close fought battle for pole.

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Combined practice times

Teams’ progress vs 2023

2024 Mexican Grand Prix

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