Piastri upbeat after Mexico FP2 despite messy lap as Ferrari loom large

Oscar Piastri left Friday’s second practice session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez cautiously optimistic, saying McLaren coped with Mexico City’s demanding high-altitude conditions better than he had anticipated — even after a self-described “pretty messy” qualifying simulation on the soft tyre.

The circuit sits more than 2,200 metres above sea level, forcing teams to run minimal downforce and battle persistent cooling problems, making it one of the most punishing venues on the calendar. Despite those challenges, Piastri felt the car’s underlying pace was solid.

“It was difficult for sure, but I don’t think necessarily worse than what I was expecting, or if anything it was probably a little bit better than I was expecting,” the Australian said after FP2. “I think we seemed to be relatively competitive, to be honest.”

Piastri was candid about where he left time on the table. “My soft lap in FP2 was pretty messy, but I felt like the overall pace seems to be there,” he said. “There was a couple of very big mistakes, so I’m optimistic that if I can tidy those up, I’ll be a lot further up as well, which is a nice feeling to have.”

He was less confident about overhauling Ferrari, who impressed throughout the day. “To try and beat Ferrari tomorrow is going to be very tough, as it looks like. And it’s very tight through the whole field, so you’re going to have to be on top of the game.”

On adapting his driving style to the low-grip surface, Piastri drew a parallel with the broader characteristics of the 2026 regulations. “It’s just incredibly low grip. With this year’s cars, honestly, it’s a similar story in most places, so it doesn’t feel that dramatic here. But it’s always a challenge, not just for the car in terms of balance, but cooling the engines — it’s always very tough.”

Mercedes driver George Russell had suggested on Thursday that Ferrari’s smaller turbo could provide “quite an advantage” at altitude under the 2026 rules, which dropped the MGU-H that previously helped manage turbo lag. Piastri was sceptical, noting that Ferrari did not appear to hold a particular straight-line edge. “I don’t think the turbo is going to make as much of a difference” as Russell implied, he said, adding that Ferrari simply “looked very quick today” without pointing to one specific technical reason.