If the world championship challenge were between Ferrari and Mercedes we would be faced with an exciting duel with unpredictable outcomes. After nineteen races the strengths and weaknesses of the two single-seaters are now known, the SF23 is superior in terms of fastest lap, the W14 has its best hunting ground in race pace.
At the end of the Mexican Grand Prix the balance was twenty-seven points each, a draw which leaves the twenty-point gap that separates the two teams in the Constructors’ classification unchanged. The one who has the most to complain about is Ferrari, even for causes beyond its control.
Max Verstappen does a different sport, he took the lead at the start, taking the lead into Turn 1 for the fifth time in six years. But when on lap 19 the world champion returned to the pits for the first stop, the advantage over Leclerc (despite the wing damaged at the start by the Monegasque in the contact with Perez) was less than five seconds, the same margin that Charles had over Lewis Hamilton. Between the two, Carlos Sainz, busy (successfully) defending third position from Mercedes’ attacks.
After Verstappen’s stop, Hamilton also stopped on lap 24 and Russell two laps later. Ferrari continued, and at that point the Cavallini men’s strategy became clear: one-stop race with the switch from medium to hard tyres. At that stage of the race it was certain that Verstappen would make two pit stops, while Mercedes, having anticipated the two stops, would evaluate what to do after the fortieth lap.
Hamilton managed the undercut on Sainz, but not on Leclerc. When Ferrari called its two drivers back to the pits (Sainz on lap 30, Leclerc the following lap) Lewis slipped behind Charles, 2″744 behind, while Sainz maintained fourth position. On lap 34 Kevin Magnussen had a violent accident which forced the race direction to interrupt the race under the red flag, an unexpected event which significantly complicated the race of the two Ferrari drivers.
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG, Charles Leclerc, Scuderia Ferrari
Both Leclerc and Sainz no longer had new tyres, the two options were to return to the track with the hard tires a few laps earlier, or to fit the set of mediums used in the Q1 session on Saturday. “We didn’t believe we could complete the 37 laps still to go with the used mediums – commented Frederic Vasseur after the race – it was a somewhat ambitious choice”.
Ferrari played it safe, leaving the hard sets on the two cars, Verstappen took advantage of this to fit a second new set of hards while Hamilton did not hesitate to focus on a medium set used in Q1. A choice that was not without risks, that of Mercedes, but which later proved to be fundamental for Lewis’ comeback to second position.
With the medium tires Hamilton was able to overtake Leclerc on lap 40, and arrive at the finish line in second position, also achieving the fastest lap on the final lap. For Leclerc, the stint on the hard proved to be more difficult than expected. The pace was not up to par in the first part of the race, Charles was unable to contain Hamilton’s assault despite his pit wall informing him that Lewis’ tire would collapse after a few laps. The track then said something else.
“We struggled at the restart with the hard tires – admitted Vasseur – in this situation Lewis managed to overtake Charles, but for us it would have been truly at the limit to be able to finish the race on the mediums. We must continue to work to reduce the difference in pace we have between the performance on the flying lap and our race pace, given that especially on the hard tires we struggled too much against our direct rivals who today managed to manage the tires much better than us.” .
In another scenario, perhaps Ferrari would have trusted itself, but faced with the possibility of finding itself in the final laps of the race with a failing medium tire, it preferred not to put third and fourth position at risk. It was realistically difficult to predict the pace at which the second half of the race was completed, but as seen in the case of Russell (who collapsed in the final laps) a few laps of brawling would have been enough to put even the lowest step of the podium at risk . Third and fourth positions are certainly not a result worthy of applause, but it was important to parry the blow against Mercedes, especially after the disappointment in Austin and especially with Charles Leclerc.
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