Both Ferrari drivers struck an optimistic tone as Charles Leclerc brushed off his crash during Mexican Grand Prix practice.
The Scuderia duo set the pace in a very competitive opening session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, before 2023 tyre testing made Practice 2 largely unrepresentative.
And Leclerc was enthused by Ferrari’s immediate strong pace despite a few setbacks.
“Not the best of Fridays as we didn’t complete a great number of laps,” he acknowledged.
“Unfortunately we had a puncture straight out of the box in FP1, so we had to pit and did just a few laps on the soft tyres after that.
“[But] I am confident that we will have a good day tomorrow, as the feeling in the car is good.”
Charles Leclerc crashes out in FP2! ?#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/hHnCfNNuyy
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 28, 2022
In FP2, the Monegasque caused a red flag after spinning into the barrier at Turn 7 during the 2023 tyre test, causing hefty damage to his Ferrari.
But Leclerc is sure there will be no lasting fallout.
“I lost the rear at the start of the high-fuel [run],” he explained. “But that was my mistake. I’m confident it won’t hurt our weekend.
“I don’t think any of it will compromise us. I think we have enough [spares] now with all the penalties we’ve had in the past, so it should be fine.
“We tried something on my car which I didn’t particularly like, so I wasn’t as much at ease with the car as I was in FP1,” he added. “But I know what to do for tomorrow, so [we are] confident that the performance will be there.”
Teammate Carlos Sainz was the slightly faster Ferrari in the more representative Practice 1, and the Spaniard believes their strong baseline will be a great benefit in a weekend of “guessing”.
“FP1 went well, it went to plan,” he said. “I think we’re in the right spot with car balance and I think it will be a matter of which package adapts better to the high altitude.
“It’s not an easy circuit. We’re naturally lacking downforce here due to the altitude, but we’re having fun out there.
“I think we got as much as we could from today. We did quite a few car changes for FP2 [but] we don’t know if we went in the right direction or not because of the tyre testing.
“So FP3 will be another busy session, like it was in Austin, trying to get the last points of data to decide before quali and before the race which I think is going to be an interesting one.
“There’s going to be a lot of guessing of where to put the car in the right place, but we’ve been good every time so far doing that this year, and we’ve got I think a good car for Saturday and Sunday.”