Luke’s Weekend Take – Mexico GP 2023

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Closing Stages of the 2023 F1 Season: In-Depth Analysis and Highlights from Round 20 at the Mexico GP

We’re at Round 20 and it is now really in the closing stages as in less than a month we have the final race of the 2023 F1 season. We’re back in the land of sombreros, tacos and Sergio Perez. We return to the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for the Mexico GP.

We start looking at FP1 where we see most of the teams running rookies in their cars as per the regulations where each team need to run 2 rookies in their cars so that the rookies can get a chance in running in an F1 car getting them some experience in how much grip and speed these 20 rocket ships have compared to the F2 cars that they are used to. We have seen Isack Hadjar running instead of Yuki Tsunoda in the Alpha Tauri, Theo Pourchaire running instead of Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo, Oliver Bearman running instead of Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, Frederik Vesti running instead of George Russell in the Mercedes and Jack Doohan running instead of Pierre Gasly in the Alpine. Red Bull decided to go with a different option to the other teams as they opted to run 2 rookies on the same event which would be the Abu Dhabi GP where both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will miss out on a session in one of the free practices.

Another thing that we have seen teams running in FP1 is the prototype Pirelli tyres which teams are obliged to run a certain amount of kilometres as well so that Pirelli can use the data for the future tyres that we see in the next F1 season ensuring that the tyres will be as good if not better than the current season. Drivers running the prototype tyre seemed to be running some decent times compared to the actual tyres for this season which looked promising as usually we get drivers complaining that the prototype tyres are not offering as much grip which is quite promising for next season.

Down at Ferrari we see Carlos Sainz suffer some misfortune as he loses hydraulics on his car with only 13 mins into the session as he limped back to the pitstop to get the mechanics to start working on the car to fix the issues. On the way to the pits, he comes on the radio apologising to Perez as he couldn’t get out of his way on one of his fast laps as his brakes and steering were not working as they should have. Sainz missed out for the rest of the session as the Ferrari team were not able to fix the issue in time for Sainz to come back out. Sainz wasn’t the only drivers suffering with issues in FP1 as with 23 mins left we hear Verstappen on the radio that there was something loose between his legs and he had to pit to get that sorted, Lando Norris down at Mclaren was having some revving issues as his car was revving by itself and Theo Pourchaire had brake issues with the Alfa Romeo and sadly wasn’t able to get a time on the board as after a few attempts to fix it, Alfa Romeo mechanics called it quits and had to bring the car back in the garage to properly look into the issue.

At the end of FP1 we see Max Verstappen at the top of the leaderboard followed very closely by Alex Albon who was less than a tenth off Max’s time and the local hero Sergio Perez getting the third fastest time of the session.

In FP2 we hear news of Yuki Tsunoda having to start at the very back of the grid as the team change all the power unit components for the car which took them over the allocation for the season. Drivers didn’t waste any time to get out on track in FP2 as there was a threat of rain and it wasn’t long before we heard drivers reporting rain as Max comes on the radio 5 mins into the session, but this never got heavy enough to warrant the use of inters. Due to the light shower we see a few drivers lock up and also drift a bit as some of the rubber gets washed off by the rain, Fernando Alonso had the biggest moment due to this as on turn 9 he loses control of his Aston Martin and does a full 360 before regaining control of his car and gets back on track taking the escape road. His teammate Lance Stroll had some issues with a wheel nut as after a short run, the team were finding it hard to get the wheel nut off and Stroll missed out a lot of the session but with 8 mins left they managed to get it off and send Stroll back out on track, however Stroll only managed an out and an in lap before returning to the pits not setting a time on the board.

With 23 mins left Alonso also gets a message that rain might be coming back within 5-10 minutes and the Aston Martin team were right as with 17 mins left Alex Albon comes on the radio reporting the rain started dropping again and with 9 mins left Perez also reports that the rain started to get heavier in the last sector but again the rain was not heavy enough to go out on inters or stop the running completely. In FP2 Max tops the leaderboard once more followed by Lando Norris in 2nd place and Charles Leclerc in 3rd place.

Thrilling Developments in FP3 and Intense Qualifying Rounds at the 2023 Mexico GP: Anticipating Sunday's Showdown

With FP3 underway it seems that is all sunny again now and there don’t be any threat of rain in the session as drivers get underway with their last practice session ahead of qualifying later that Saturday. Not all teams seemed to be in a hurry to get out as FP3 is more of a practice session to mimic qualifying. Pierre Gasly had a moment in FP3 as he spins out coming to the beginning of the stadium section, luckily, he was able to keep it out of the barriers. Wind seems to have picked up in Fp3 as Gasly was not the only driver being caught out with a snappy rear end as Russell also had a moment coming into the ‘S’ section of the track.

Red Bull were really not in a hurry coming out on track as they waited for the track to evolve as they only started putting in timed laps with 36 mins left and on his fast lap, Perez had the fastest sector 1 but locked up in sector 2 which lost him some time and only managed to get a lap quick enough for 5th place on his first run in FP3 while his teammate managed to go 2nd fast on his first lap. We also see the Alpha Tauri practicing the tow with Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo which I assume that given that Tsunoda has the penalty, they will be relying on him to give Daniel a tow to give him the best chance in qualifying.

Esteban Ocon had a bit of a moment in FP3 as coming up to Turn 1 he had a lock up under breaking and went straight on into the runoff before coming back on track while Williams are surprisingly looking exceptionally fast this weekend as in FP3 both drivers managed to put down an impressive time in FP3 with the drivers finishing in 2nd and 11th.

Ferrari in FP3 both had issues when it came to the final flying laps as both Charles and Carlos had drivers impeding them on their lap when it came to the ‘S’ section but Sainz had it worse as he had Stroll in front of him and due to that, Sainz picked up a bit more kerb than you usually take and spun around nearly collecting the Aston Martin of Stoll in the process. Luckily, he was able to not hit Stroll but both Ferrari drivers was not impressed with the matter. Stroll was noted down by the stewards and is under investigation for impeding. Once again Max was top of the leaderboard followed by the impressive pace of Alex Albon and Sergio Perez in 3rd.

It’s time for qualifying and weather seems to be clear again for qualifying. From FP3 we learned that each soft compound trye will only be good for 1 flying lap as the lap takes so much performance that it is a do or die for the drivers in each section of Qualifying as they have to make sure to get their laps in cleanly to not have any setbacks in qualifying.

In Q1 traffic was a bit of an issue especially towards the end of the session as cars pack up towards the end of the pitlane which could cause some issues for some. Down at Mclaren we see Lando Norris not set a time at all in the beginning of the Q1 and on his flying lap we see him lose the car a bit which meant he was still down in 19th place, luckily he still had time to do a cooldown lap and go again but he was going to be at a disadvantage due to his tyres being ran on a fast lap already. After one outlap as he was getting ready to go for the final flying lap in Q1 we see Fernando Alonso lose the car in sector 1 which meant Lando had to abort his lap as he would have had to slow down making his lap not quick enough. This meant that in Q1 we lose Esteban Ocon, Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll, Lando Norris and Logan Sargeant.

Max Verstappen, George Russell and Fernando Alonso are all being investigated after the session for impeding as leaving the pits they were all standing still at the end of the pitlane before they got out on their outlap. Lewis Hamilton was also noted by the stewards that he failed to slow down under yellow flags. Same with Logan Sargeant and Yuki Tsunoda as they will also be investigated after the session for overtaking under yellow flags. George Russell, Lando Norris and Zhou Guanyu will also be investigated after the session for failing to follow the race director’s instructions regarding Maximum Delta Time. It seems that regardless the order for qualifying, come race day it could all change due to penalties.

In Q2 Alex Albon was complaining that he has damage as the car is totally different and he was unable to extract the same performance from the car like he was able to in Q1. Luckily for Albon he was able to find some pace in the final run of Q2 as he manages to sneak into Q3 by setting a lap fast enough for 9th however it seems that on Turn 2 he went over track limits and gets eliminated. Carlos Sainz got incredibly lucky himself as on the last flying lap he locked up in Sector 2 not managing to improve on his lap time and managed to get through to Q3 in 10th place. In Q2 we lose Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Fernando Alonso, Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda.

In Q3 we see Charles Leclerc take provisional pole on the first run, followed by Sainz, Verstappen and Ricciardo on the first runs which all eyes were on the Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo. Max Verstappen warns the team to look at the front left of his floor as he took too much kerb on turn 8 which might explain why he didn’t have such an impressive time on the first run. 2nd runs are off and all drivers are going at it ensuring that they get the best time possible to form the grid for the race on Sunday. Ferrari pair were unable to go faster on the last run, but no one was able to really improve on their last run so Charles Leclerc takes pole followed by Carlos Sainz, Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Lewis Hamilton, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

After qualifying the stewards announce that Logan Sargeant got a 10-place grid penalty for overtaking under the yellow flag which will start Sargeant in P20 behind Tsunoda while Williams themselves got a €20,000 fine for leaving equipment in the pitlane where we saw Tsunoda clip their rear jack in Q2.

Can Ferrari convert this qualifying result into a good race result? Who do you think will come out on top in the race on Sunday? With potential upcoming penalties it seems that we have got a race on Sunday and I will see you in the post-race review.

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