Sainz credits focus on tyre preparation for Mexico City GP pole

Carlos Sainz says the work he undertook with Ferrari during F1's recent three-week break to improve his tire preparation in qualifying is bearing fruit, as his impressive run to pole on Saturday in Mexico City demonstrated.

The Spaniard delivered a dominant display in Q3 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, setting a time of 1:15.946 that was over two-tenths quicker than its nearest rival.

Remarkably, even his initial run in the final segment of the session would have been good enough for pole, but he managed to lower his benchmark with an even stronger second lap.

When asked about the achievement, Sainz expressed his delight at the result.

“Yeah, very sweet,” he said. “It's not normal to have such two strong lapses around Mexico.

“There's a lot of sliding in the lap, very difficult to put a lap together. And actually my two laps of Q3 were both almost perfect.

“Very happy to be on pole and to confirm the good form from Austin. Austin already, that last lap of Q3 was coming good.

“So I had high hopes coming into Mexico, and yeah, we managed to keep it up.”

• 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix - Qualifying results

Indeed, Sainz had been optimistic coming into this weekend's race after a strong showing in Austin, where he qualified third. And his confidence was justified as he capitalized on Saturday on the recent work conducted during F1's autumn break.

“Tyre preparation has been a hot topic in Ferrari the last few races,” he acknowledged. “Because we feel like in the race we're always very strong. But we seem to lack something in qualifying.

“This year's car is very good on tires, but I think that sometimes it means that in quali you cannot maybe extract the maximum out of the tires in the first timed lap.

“I put a bit of focus on that during the break, the three-week break, and came into Austin and Mexico with a couple of things that seemed to pay off.”

This focus on tire management not only allowed Sainz to be aggressive in Mexico but also gave him the confidence to take risks during his final Q3 run.

With a solid banker lap in hand, he opted to gamble with his car's setup, adding more front wing to seek further gains.

“There were two really good laps, and the fact that the first lap was so good, and so much clear of the field, allowed me to take even further risks in Q3,” I explained.
“I added a bit of front wing, just because I had nothing to lose, and see if by adding a bit more front end to the car, I would go even quicker.

“Also, the first lap of Q3, I didn't take many risks with the turn to kerb, trying to stay away from the track limits.

“But in the second lap, I knew that the first might be enough for pole and I just tried to maximize the track limits there. It gave me, for free, a tenth, and then I kept [it] for the rest of the lap.”

Despite Ferrari's car being more competitive in race conditions than in qualifying throughout the season, Sainz's pole was a testament to his efforts and the team's progress.

However, while confident in his SF-24's race pace, he acknowledged that starting on pole at Mexico's high-altitude circuit comes with unique challenges, particularly the long run to Turn 1.

“Yeah, relatively confident, because I know my race day should be good tomorrow,” Sainz said.

“Probably the biggest difficult thing will be the run down into Turn 1, starting on pole with a slipstream.

“But I think you can still defend, you can still make it stick into Turn 1, starting on pole, and that will be my target tomorrow.”

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