Ferrari secured its second consecutive victory after successful in the US Grand Prix on the Austin circuit, ending first on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix with Carlos Sainz, however the likelihood for a second double win evaporated just some laps from the top resulting from an error made by Charles Leclerc as he exited the ultimate nook.
The Monegasque misplaced management of the rear finish, going off observe and permitting a charging Lando Norris to cross him firstly of the straight. From that second on, Charles Leclerc targeted solely on bringing his SF-24 to the end line, contributing to recovering factors in opposition to McLaren within the Constructors’ Championship.
The ultimate end result indicated that Lando Norris was sooner than the Monegasque driver within the final stint on arduous tires, however Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari’s crew principal, defined what led Charles Leclerc to lose all of the benefit he had over the McLaren rival earlier than making the decisive mistake on the final nook.
Based on the French supervisor, the lapped drivers in entrance of Charles (notably Lance Stroll, although he was by no means explicitly named) took too lengthy to respect the blue flags correctly displayed by the observe marshals and let the Ferrari driver cross. This led to a lack of tire temperature within the SF-24, which proved essential within the misplaced battle in opposition to Lando Norris just some kilometers later.
Frederic Vasseur pointed fingers at Franco Colapinto, Liam Lawson, and Lance Stroll for ignoring blue flags, which in the end proved expensive for the Maranello crew: “[Leclerc] misplaced three or 4 seconds into the site visitors with some idiots,” the French supervisor defined in an interview for Sky Sports activities F1 on the finish of the Mexican Grand Prix – “That Norris was in the end sooner than Leclerc is an evaluation made by others, and I don’t agree. Norris got here again, Charles pushed a bit an excessive amount of. Maybe he misplaced additionally a bit little bit of temperature within the tyres when he was with these guys. Actually, they need to respect the blue flag and I don’t perceive why the FIA didn’t give them a penalty. We had 4 seconds on Norris. And after the three guys, we had been 1.2 or 1.3 forward.”
Throughout his post-race dialogue with choose media, the Ferrari crew principal elaborated on his ideas: “Charles was not completely satisfied [Saturday] with P3 or P4, however nonetheless as we speak he did race. I’m a bit upset with the story with the blue flag, it price us P2. However on the finish of the day, it’s like it’s, however we now have to be targeted now on the following one and overlook this one. If you do 5 corners when the man has a stable blue, it’s not unlucky. It’s a mistake of the man.” – the French supervisor identified.
In abstract, with out the habits deemed incorrect by the lapped drivers, Charles Leclerc would have had the chance to offer Ferrari a second consecutive one-two end, this time on the 4.304-kilometre Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico Metropolis, though McLaren confirmed barely higher tempo on the arduous tires within the final stint.
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