The three-way Constructors’ Championship battle between McLaren, Purple Bull, and Ferrari will dominate the rest of the 2024 Formulation 1 season.
However fascinating battles are shaping up everywhere in the grid, with maybe probably the most intriguing being the competition between Haas and Visa Money App RB F1 Group for sixth within the Constructors’ Championship. Whereas VCARB entered final week’s United States Grand Prix with a three-point lead in that battle, an incredible week for Haas on house turf noticed them depart Austin with a two-point lead in that conflict. Solely an enormous restoration drive from Liam Lawson — who picked up two factors with a ninth-place end after beginning in P19 — mitigated the injury for VCARB.
Now Lawson and firm are wanting ahead to a “battle of effectivity” within the excessive altitude of Mexico Metropolis.
“From Austin, we head south to Mexico Metropolis for the second leg of this triple header. The biggest and most densely populated metropolis in North America sits at an altitude of 2240 meters and this brings distinctive challenges for the groups,” stated Alan Permane, VCARB’s racing director, within the group’s media preview for the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix. “The a lot decrease air stress considerably reduces the downforce generated and forces the groups to run Monaco ranges of drag, with decrease than Monza ranges of downforce. The opposite burden this brings is on all of the cooling methods.
“It’s a battle of effectivity as a result of the extra the bodywork is opened for elevated cooling, the extra downforce is misplaced and drag is elevated. The monitor has a pleasant mixture of technical low velocity corners and excessive velocity modifications of path earlier than the drivers enter the stadium part for the ultimate corners.,” added Permane. “Pirelli will convey their softest tyres of the 2024 vary and even with these the race is prone to be a one cease technique because of the clean tarmac and altitude results.”
“Mexico is an uncommon occasion due to the excessive altitude of the circuit, which implies you run a most aero bundle, however solely really feel Monza ranges of downforce and the automobiles hit among the highest high speeds of the season,” stated Tsunoda, who completed 14th in Austin. “You even discover the shortage of oxygen just a little bit out of the cockpit, however not a lot if you find yourself driving. Though it’s not a Dash weekend, we can have barely much less time than standard to work on automobile set-up and guarantee now we have the proper cooling ranges on a monitor the place it’s straightforward to overheat most of the parts, together with the ICE. That’s as a result of FP2 will probably be spent solely engaged on a Pirelli take a look at for subsequent 12 months’s compounds. Austin wasn’t nice, so I’m glad we go racing once more instantly.”
As for Lawson, who delivered a stupendous restoration drive in his return to the grid, the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix is an opportunity to select up the place he left off in Austin.
Mexico may be very completely different to Austin; a distinct fashion of circuits, with the principle distinction being right down to the altitude, which means we run a excessive downforce on the automobile. The speeds we attain are among the highest of the season, which implies via the corners, particularly the high-speed part of the monitor, there’s lots much less downforce in comparison with someplace like Austin. Grip is kind of low, so the automobiles slide round quite a bit, making it tough to handle tires,” stated Lawson. “For me, I’ve solely been there as soon as earlier than to do a free apply session in 2022, so it’ll be much like Austin, having to re-learn every little thing, however with the luxurious of three quite than simply the one. Hopefully among the issues we learnt in Austin will assist this week, however given the monitor is so completely different, we’ll even be operating the automobile in fairly a distinct window.
“I’m wanting ahead to getting again to it and I’m excited to get again within the automobile!”
