After the positive signs on Friday, Ferrari approached the final practice session of the Mexican Grand Prix determined to make the most of the SF-25’s potential. Despite its structural limitations, the car showed competitive pace yesterday, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finishing second and fifth respectively. Max Verstappen topped the timesheets but admitted Red Bull still lacked consistency over long runs, unlike Lando Norris, who appeared very strong in race trim.
SF-25 remains in good shape
The Ferraris headed out on track early in the session. Lewis Hamilton was the first to leave the garage, followed shortly after by Charles Leclerc. The gearbox was set to the Gx2 mapping, ensuring faster and smoother shifts. Both drivers began on the Medium tyres, ideal for fine-tuning the final setup details. Hamilton started with determination, attacking the opening corners decisively, but struggled to find rhythm through the early section of the circuit, as his engineer Riccardo Adami pointed out over team radio.
At turn 4, Hamilton ran wide and had to lift, cooling his tyres in the process. On his next lap, he made a similar mistake into turn 1, suggesting the braking reference still wasn’t perfect. Meanwhile, Leclerc began his first flying lap while Hamilton completed a more controlled run, finally finishing it cleanly. Both Ferrari drivers set comparable lap times, though still some way off the leading pace.
They were roughly six-tenths off the top. Lewis Hamilton requested a small adjustment to the front end, increasing load by two clicks to improve braking stability. Leclerc returned briefly to the pit lane, performing a clutch bite-point test at the pit exit. The British driver went for another push lap but continued to miss braking points at several corners.
Leclerc, however, improved significantly on his second lap, recovering three-tenths, though still trailing the Red Bulls and McLarens. After a double cool-down lap, both pushed again, but the third sector continued to be problematic, exposing the SF-25’s lack of rear grip. Tyre management remained the biggest challenge of the session.
Toward the end, Hamilton asked for another two clicks of front load, while Leclerc went back out with the same setup. The Monegasque driver found greater precision through the final sector but still lost a couple of tenths compared to the best laps. Hamilton, meanwhile, reduced the gap to three-tenths, showing that progress was heading in the right direction. The key factor remained tyre warm-up, crucial to maintaining grip and stability across the entire lap.
SF-25: focus on the middle sector
After a short break, both Ferrari drivers returned to the track on a fresh set of Medium tyres. As expected, their ability to adapt to the evolving asphalt and correctly manage tyre activation proved essential. Charles Leclerc was the first to go out, delivering a lap almost identical to his previous one, earning praise from his engineer Bryan Bozzi over the radio.
Hamilton managed to find a few hundredths in the first and second sectors. Beyond tyre behaviour, it was evident Ferrari prioritized performance in the middle sector, sacrificing some speed in the final part of the lap. In terms of balance, the car appeared more stable than the McLaren, even though the latter still retained an overall performance edge. The chosen direction looked solid, but the true test would come on the Soft tyres.
The softer compound promised better grip but risked increasing understeer, potentially affecting balance. Overall, Ferrari seemed to have found a reasonable technical compromise, though further optimization was needed to maximize one-lap performance. The goal was to combine all three sectors perfectly, exploiting every possible detail, especially in a session where the top cars were separated by just a few tenths.
Qualifying simulation: Hamilton faster than Leclerc
Mercedes also joined the fight at the front with George Russell, confirming how tightly matched the top group was. Analysis of the sector times showed that each leading team used different strategies to build their laps, but the results were similar, with no clear advantage for anyone as the track continued to evolve.
Once the Soft tyres were fitted, Charles Leclerc was the first to leave the pits. He prepared his tyres carefully and completed a tidy lap, though with some minor imperfections. His biggest issues came in the final sector, particularly through turns 12 and 13, where he missed the ideal line. He also experienced a small snap of oversteer on the exit of the final corner. Hamilton, by contrast, looked stronger in the closing part of the lap, setting the best time in sector two. Shortly after, Norris stole the spotlight, improving across all three sectors.
After two cooling laps to manage tyre temperatures, Hamilton attempted another push but made small errors in sector two and aborted the lap. Leclerc encountered traffic through the technical section of sector two, losing precious time. Following another cool-down, the roles reversed: this time, it was Hamilton who found slower cars ahead, though Adami continued to encourage him over the radio despite no improvement. Charles Leclerc managed to shave another tenth off his best lap.
Overall, few drivers improved their times late in the session, as the best track conditions had come earlier in the first runs. Despite not showing its full potential, Ferrari confirmed solid competitiveness. Precision during qualifying will be vital, with Norris emerging as the main benchmark. From second place downwards, however, the battle remains completely open.
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