Welcome to The Briefing, where we’ll be answering the key on-track questions ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Each week, powered by Google Cloud, we’ll be speaking to one of our trackside experts to walk you through the biggest talking points and provide you with a simplified guide of what you’ll need to know to jump straight into the action. This week, ahead of FP1, we spoke to Will Joseph.
The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is famous for two things: its unique stadium section, in which cars drive through an old baseball arena, and the fact that it’s really, really high up. The latter, obviously, requires a lot more preparation than the former.
At 2,285m above sea level, the thinner air generates less grip and downforce while demanding more from the car and its power unit, making cooling more important. This will make up a crucial part of the team’s testing across the three Free Practices sessions. We’ve also got Pato O’Ward in the car for the first of those sessions, as part of the Sporting Regulation requirement to field a rookie driver in at least four FP1 sessions a season.
In this weekend’s edition of the briefing, with Will’s help, we’ll explain all of the above and examine how it will affect us. We’ll also walk you through what work we’ll have Pato doing in the MCL39.