Vasseur Cautious as Leclerc Sweeps Mexico Practice

Charles Leclerc topped both of Friday's practice sessions at the Mexico City Grand Prix, but Fred Vasseur is refusing to talk up Ferrari's chances — and last weekend in Austin is the reason why.

Why it matters:

Ferrari is hunting a third win of 2026 after Hamilton in Barcelona and Leclerc at Silverstone, and the SF-26's smaller turbo should theoretically blunt the power loss that altitude inflicts at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. Yet a team that swept every practice session in Austin a week ago ended up qualifying fourth and fifth and finished second and fourth. Vasseur has seen this film before, and he isn't keen on a sequel.

The details:

• Leclerc set a 1m18.128s in FP1 before lowering the benchmark to 1m17.827s in FP2.
• Hamilton ran fourth in the opening session, 0.738s adrift, and sat inside the top five until his engine failed midway through FP2.
• Vasseur called the conditions "mega extreme," adding that the bumps before Turn 1 were "almost dangerous" and that Ferrari would have to change something overnight.
• The low-grip circuit is notorious for track evolution, and Vasseur expects every team to find lap time as the altitude effects shift through the weekend.

Between the lines:

George Russell named Ferrari the pre-weekend favourite on the strength of that turbo package. Hamilton wasn't having it, pointing out that Mercedes and Red Bull remain "massively quicker at the end of the straights" and that Ferrari is still giving away two or three tenths. His verdict: the car is behaving well, the power unit is the open question — and he's already praying for it after the FP2 failure.

What's next:

Qualifying will settle the argument. With Mercedes still setting the championship pace and Red Bull resurgent, Ferrari's Friday form buys nothing until Saturday afternoon.