Liam Lawson explains why Mexico GP weekend will be “a luxury” for him compared to Austin. Liam Lawson previews the F1 Mexico City GP.

The New Zealander previews the upcoming event
Liam Lawson has kicked off his 2024 Formula 1 season after replacing Daniel Ricciardo for six races behind the wheel of the Racing Bulls. The New Zealander finished the United States Grand Prix in ninth position, immediately scoring points in the Drivers’ standings and matching his best career result from Singapore in 2023. In Texas, Liam Lawson had to serve a grid penalty for introducing a new engine and had only one free practice session to learn the track. In Mexico, he will have more than three times the amount of time (at least to familiarize himself with the circuit) since the second free practice will be extended by 30 minutes in order to allow Pirelli to collect important data for the 2025 F1 tires.

“Mexico is very different from Austin, starting with the altitude, which ‘forces’ us to run a high-downforce setup,” Liam Lawson explained. “The speeds we reach are among the highest of the season, which means that in the corners, especially in the high-speed sections of the track, there is much less downforce compared to a circuit like Austin. Grip is quite low, so the cars slide around a lot, making tire management difficult. As for me, I’ve only been there once for a free practice session in 2022, so it will be similar to Austin—I’ll have to relearn everything, but with the luxury of having three practice sessions instead of just one. Hopefully, some of the things we learned in Austin will be useful this week, but since the track is so different, we’ll also be running the car in a very different configuration. I’m looking forward to getting back in the cockpit.” – he pointed out ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

“Mexico is a unique event due to the high altitude of the circuit. We race with maximum downforce, but it feels like we’re running Monza wings,” Yuki Tsunoda added. “The lack of oxygen is noticeable even outside the cockpit, but not so much when driving. Although it’s not a Sprint weekend, we’ll have a bit less time than usual to work on the car’s setup and ensure we have the right cooling levels on a track where it’s easy to overheat many components. This is because FP2 will be entirely dedicated to a Pirelli test for next year’s tires. I’m glad to get back to racing immediately to try to bounce back from the Austin weekend.”