“Mexico track will be in our favour”– Ferrari claims Mexico will give them a boost against McLaren

Tanish Chachra | 02/11/2021
"Mexico track will be in our favour"– Ferrari claims Mexico will give them a boost against McLaren

Ferrari vying against McLaren for P3 in the constructors’ standings and thinks Mexico grants them a significant boost in the F1 battle.

Ferrari, at the start of 2021, aspired for the P3 in the constructors’ standings. But the only barrier to their objective is McLaren, who are currently 3.5 points ahead.

But with the recent engine upgrade, Ferrari has seen better power and can dominate over their rivals. Now, coming to Mexico, the Maranello based team claims that they have an edge as they will be running maximum downforce.

“In Mexico, we are running there with maximum downforce performance, and it is a track where power sensitivity is less important,” said Mattia Binotto.

“So although there is still a gap to Mercedes [in power terms], I think the Mexico track will be in our favour compared to what we saw in Austin.”

Also read: Mercedes AMG GTR Safety Car to make a return to Formula 1 at the Mexican Grand Prix

Ferrari overpowering McLaren in Austin was pumping

Binotto reckoned Ferrari outplaying McLaren in Austin was a significant achievement for them. On paper, McLaren with a Mercedes engine should have dominated, but Ferrari bagged more points.

“Generally speaking, this year the McLaren has been always very competitive with the medium/high speed corners, and again it was the case in Austin,” he said.

“But I think if I look at the overall performance of the weekend, we were ahead of them: which was very obvious in qualifying, and Charles [in the race] was half a second on average ahead of Ricciardo, finishing 25 seconds ahead of him.”

“In the overall balance of the lap. I think we have been clearly faster and, I think on paper, it was not a circuit which was suiting obviously our car.”

“That’s why I’m pleased with the progress I’ve seen in the last races, and certainly the help of the power unit, both for quali and the race. That gives me some confidence for the next races.”

Also read: Toto Wolff says Christian Horner is like little actor in Hollywood pantomime

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
ferrari McLaren

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

Don’t miss these