Friday Report -- Mexico City F1 GP, Mercedes Benz Team

 

Solid first day in Mexico City

• The team had a decent first day of practice in Mexico City: Kimi, George and Fred drove in the W17 and finished in the top four in both practice sessions.
• Fred completed his third rookie session of the season in FP1. He took over the car from George and did an excellent job of completing his program in full and setting the third fastest time of the first practice session.
• He was the fastest rookie in the session, less than a tenth of a second behind Kimi, who finished second.
• George returned to the car in FP2 and, together with Kimi, built on the work done in FP1.
• George set the third fastest time of the day, just 0.106 seconds behind Charles Leclerc's best time in the Ferrari.
• Kimi was only 0.111 seconds behind his teammate in fourth place. In this session, four different teams were represented among the top five.
• In the long runs, it once again looked incredibly close between the top four teams, with both the soft and medium tyres being used.

Driver	FP1				FP2
George Russell	-	-	-	-	31 para.	1:17.933	P3	Medium, Soft, Soft
Kimi Antonelli	30 para.	1:18.787	P2	Hard, Soft	33 para.	1:18.044	P4	Medium, Soft, Medium
Fred Vesti	24 para.	1:18.861	P3	Hard, Soft	-	-	-	-

George Russell

Fred did a really good job in the car and prepared me optimally for the training session. It was good to get back into the rhythm so quickly after skipping the first practice session. Mexico is always a special challenge because of the altitude and the low grip, which is even more noticeable this year. Due to the way the cars work on the straights, we were running with a lot of downforce on most tracks. Therefore, the increase in downforce is not as strong this time as is usually the case on this route. This makes the car particularly tricky to drive. In addition, there is the challenge of turbo lag at this altitude.

It's incredibly close, and every tenth of a second will be decisive. Ferrari seems to be the strongest at the moment. Given the characteristics of this track, this may not be a surprise, but I think that can change between now and Q3 tomorrow. We have to get everything out of the car because the gaps will be very small.

Kimi Antonelli

First of all, it was nice to be back in the car today and to feel fit. It was an interesting Friday here in Mexico. It's never easy to get a feel for the car, especially in the first practice session when the track still needs to be driven cleanly. We tried a few different things between sessions to put the balance of the car in a better window and it seems like we improved for the second practice session.

There are definitely things we can improve on tomorrow and we still have some work to do overnight. Ferrari looked very fast, but we'll focus on ourselves, see where we can get more performance out of it and hopefully put ourselves in a good starting position for tomorrow.

Fred Vesti

I'm very happy with my FP1 today. We completed our entire program, collected a lot of valuable data for this weekend and the future and created the basis for the rest of the day. Personally, I was also very satisfied with my performance during training. I knew my lap on the soft tyres was good, but when I saw third place on the timesheet, I was overjoyed. Since the start of development two years ago, I have put an enormous amount of work into this car together with the team. So it's very special for me to have the opportunity to ride it here in Mexico and put in a strong lap.

I'm very grateful for the trust the team has placed in me and for giving me the opportunity to prove my skills. These training sessions are very important for all of us rookies, so I'm happy to have made the most of them today. I felt comfortable in the car, put in a good lap and was really happy to finish third. It was a great experience that I enjoyed very much.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

It was a solid first day in Mexico. Kimi and Fred both did a good job in the first practice session, especially given the difficult conditions here due to the altitude and low grip. Fred completed the program provided for him and showed an excellent performance with third place. This provided us with valuable information for the second practice session, in which George was back at the wheel.

The track in Mexico is the most difficult to prepare for, as it is impossible to simulate all the effects of altitude. We are using Friday to understand the different issues we are facing and to develop an approach on how to overcome them in qualifying and in the race.

As far as the Power Unit is concerned, we seem to be in good shape and have a lot of power delivery out of the corners. However, the cooling of both the brakes and the power unit is always an issue here. However, we were able to do decent long runs with both cars. While we'd like to see a little more wiggle room, it seems like all the teams here need to do some level of management.

The field is close together and after today we wouldn't be at the top. We struggle with a lack of stability at corner entry, which leads to understeer at the apex. The problems on a fast lap are similar to those on the long runs. That should make it a little easier to make progress. But it's also clear that we still have to improve if we want to fight for the front row of the grid.