Leclerc tops both Friday sessions in Mexico but Vasseur urges Ferrari caution after Austin collapse

Charles Leclerc led both Friday practice sessions at the Mexico City Grand Prix, posting a best time of 1m17.827s in FP2 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, yet Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was quick to pump the brakes on any title-weekend optimism.

Leclerc had also topped FP1 with a 1m18.128s, while team-mate Lewis Hamilton ran competitively in fourth during the opening session before an engine failure ended his FP2 prematurely. Despite the encouraging numbers on the timing sheets, Vasseur pointed to last weekend in Austin — where Ferrari led every practice session only to qualify fourth and fifth and finish second and fourth in the race — as a reason for restraint.

“I don’t have to be confident or not. We have to work, we have to try to get the best for tomorrow,” Vasseur said on Friday. “It’s a good start of the weekend, but there’s still a long way to go.”

The Ferrari boss flagged the extreme conditions at altitude as a major variable, noting the circuit’s notorious low-grip surface and significant track evolution as factors that could shuffle the order by qualifying. “Conditions are mega extreme, more than we knew before with the altitude,” he said. “It’s a challenge for us, but also for the others.”

Vasseur also raised concerns about the circuit’s surface itself, describing the approach to Turn 1 as “almost dangerous” due to heavy bumps, and indicated the team would need to address setup work overnight.

Mexico City’s high altitude does theoretically suit Ferrari’s SF-26, whose smaller turbo should suffer less lag than rivals when the unit is forced to work harder in thin air. That logic prompted Mercedes driver George Russell to label Ferrari the pre-weekend favourite, though Hamilton himself pushed back on that assessment after FP2. “I don’t really agree on the turbo thing,” said the seven-time world champion.

For Ferrari, Mexico represents a genuine shot at a third victory of the 2026 season — Hamilton having won in Barcelona and Leclerc at Silverstone — but the team faces stiff competition from a resurgent Red Bull and Mercedes, who head into the weekend with championship momentum. Vasseur acknowledged that every team would refine their packages overnight, making Friday’s times an unreliable guide to Saturday’s grid order.

“Everybody will improve, everybody will fine-tune the package with the altitude,” he added. “It’s even more of a challenge for the drivers to come with this level of downforce in Mexico.”