The second free practice session at the 2022 Mexican Grand Prix was all about Pirelli tire testing, which is why the bottom line result was not particularly meaningful. And it was also not surprising that in the end three of the five drivers who had skipped the first practice session in favor of Friday drivers were in the lead.
Because while everyone else was forced to only test the Pirelli prototypes for 2023, the five were allowed to catch up on what they had missed in the first practice session. George Russell (Mercedes) set Friday’s best time of 1:19.970 minutes and undercut Carlos Sainz’s best time in FT1 by 0.737 seconds.
Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri/+0.828) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine/+1.207) landed behind Russell – a result that would be a huge sensation in qualifying on Saturday. The two had also skipped FT1 (for Liam Lawson and Jack Doohan).
Exciting though: There were just 0.184 seconds between Lewis Hamilton (4th/Mercedes/+1.539), the fastest of the “FT1 drivers”, and Sainz in 8th place. This continues the trend that extremely tight time intervals could be expected this weekend.
Local hero Sergio Perez was fifth, Max Verstappen (both Red Bull) sixth. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) finished FT2 in 12th (+2.401), Mick Schumacher (Haas) in 17th (+2.909).
What was the cause of the Leclerc crash?
Seen from the outside, the Ferrari driver’s exit from turn 7 looked like a driving error. “I’m fine. The car isn’t,” Leclerc radioed to his race engineer before he got out. Before that, he lost his rear end exiting the corner and hit the barriers rear wing first. After a good half hour driving time, the session had to be interrupted for 20 minutes.
In his defence, it should be said that the conditions in Mexico on Friday were extremely difficult. There was perfect Formula 1 weather in the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. But the asphalt was extremely slippery on the rarely used course. Verstappen and Russell, among others, had already complained about this on the pit radio.
Does Mercedes have an outsider chance?
The thin mountain air at over 2,200 meters in Mexico City, according to the theory before the start of the race weekend, could accommodate Mercedes. The F1 W13 E Performance is considered “draggy”, meaning it typically suffers from high drag compared to the competition. An effect that is not eliminated by the thin air, but is reduced.
The first training went respectably. Hamilton finished fifth with 0.142 seconds on Sainz. Team boss Toto Wolff drew confidence from this in an interview with ‘Sky’: “If everyone has to drive high downforce, we’ll be there.”
What Russell could confirm with P1 and Hamilton with P4 in the second practice session.
How did it go for Schumacher?
Mexico is a particularly important weekend for the 23-year-old German. Next week, so it is rumored, the decision about his future in the Haas team could be made. A good start to the weekend would therefore be important in order to maybe get those points on Sunday that owner Gene Haas demanded from him.
Schumacher was 14th in the first practice session. However, his teammate Pietro Fittipaldi had to retire early due to a power unit problem and was unable to set a serious reference time. Regular driver Kevin Magnussen was allowed to take part in the second practice session. By the way, because of the engine change, he now faces a five grid position drop-off.
At half-time after 45 minutes, Magnussen had only completed three laps (Schumacher: ten). But not everything went smoothly for Schumacher either. Immediately after ten minutes he fell victim to the low level of grip and slid off the track. However, he was then able to continue training without damaging the car.
Schumacher ultimately finished 17th, 0.437 seconds ahead of Magnussen. Encouraging: His gap to a top 10 place was only 0.775 seconds, to a Q2 place (Daniel Ricciardo in P15) only 0.116 seconds.
How exactly did the Pirelli tire test go?
Similar to a week ago in Austin, the teams’ program for the second free practice session was again imposed by a Pirelli tire test for 2023. Only the five drivers who had to skip FT1 due to the use of a Friday driver were allowed to use the regular tires for this race weekend and drive a normal program in the afternoon.
Pirelli gave the other 15 drivers two short runs (three timed laps) each with 20 kilograms of petrol in the tank. A long run (at least seven laps) with 100 kilograms of petrol had to be completed with each of these two sets of tires. That was “exactly specified”, explains McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl in an interview with ‘ServusTV’.
In order to get the most authentic feedback possible on the test tires for 2023, Pirelli carried out a so-called blind test. That means drivers and teams didn’t know what tires they had on. The 2023 prototypes were also – unlike the normal tires for this weekend – not colour-coded.
What can the teams learn from a tire test?
“Very little” when it comes to Williams team boss Jost Capito. He explains in an interview with ‘Sky’: “We don’t know what mixture it is, so it’s extremely difficult to say anything about it. We collect the data, it goes to the Pirelli and that’s it.”
Compared to the 2022 tires, “there are differences,” says Capito, “but not too much. Mainly because you don’t know what compound you’re driving. You’re relatively groping in the dark.”
Why did the session end prematurely?
The red flag came out again two minutes before the end. Guanyo Zhou (Alfa Romeo) was instructed by his race engineer to stop the car due to a hydraulic problem. Zhou stopped in the stadium, not far from the Sauber pits – and because the session was almost over by then, it wasn’t resumed afterwards.