Mexico is seeing a boost in the F1 battle with McLaren

With five races to go, the team from Maranello is only three and a half points behind McLaren in the battle for the third sport behind Mercedes and Red Bull.

And with a recent engine upgrade boosting its performance, the team is increasingly optimistic about its outlook for the remainder of the campaign.

At the United States Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc took a strong fourth place, nearly 25 seconds ahead of Daniel Ricciardo’s leading McLaren.

This achievement was particularly important because the Austin layout, with its high-speed corners and long straights, shouldn’t have been particularly preferred for the Italian team.

And that’s why Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto believes that the unique nature of Mexico, where teams run with maximum wings, could be an even better hunting ground.

“In Mexico we are driving with maximum output power there, and it’s a circuit where power sensitivity is less important,” he said.

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

Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Binotto said the fact that Ferrari was faster than McLaren in Austin mattered because it was a place that should have played out McLaren’s strengths.

“In general, the McLaren has always been very competitive on the medium and high speed corners this year and that was the case again at Austin,” he said.

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

“In the overall balance of the round. I think we were a lot faster and on paper it obviously wasn’t a track that suited our car.

“So I’m happy about the progress I’ve seen in the last few races, and certainly about the help from the Power Unit, both for qualifying and for the race. That gives me some confidence for the next races.”