Yuki Tsunoda and VCARB anticipating a ‘battle of efficiency’ at F1 Mexico City Grand Prix

Liam Lawson and VCARB are hoping to keep pace with Haas this week in Mexico City

The three-way Constructors’ Championship fight between McLaren, Red Bull, and Ferrari will dominate the remainder of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

But fascinating battles are shaping up all over the grid, with perhaps the most intriguing being the contest between Haas and Visa Cash App RB F1 Team for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship. While VCARB entered last week’s United States Grand Prix with a three-point lead in that fight, a tremendous week for Haas on home turf saw them leave Austin with a two-point lead in that clash. Only a massive recovery drive from Liam Lawson — who picked up two points with a ninth-place finish after starting in P19 — mitigated the damage for VCARB.

Now Lawson and company are looking forward to a “battle of efficiency” in the high altitude of Mexico City.

“From Austin, we head south to Mexico City for the second leg of this triple header. The largest and most densely populated city in North America sits at an altitude of 2240 meters and this brings unique challenges for the teams,” said Alan Permane, VCARB’s racing director, in the team’s media preview for the Mexico City Grand Prix. “The much lower air pressure significantly reduces the downforce generated and forces the teams to run Monaco levels of drag, with lower than Monza levels of downforce. The other burden this brings is on all the cooling systems.

“It’s a battle of efficiency because the more the bodywork is opened for increased cooling, the more downforce is lost and drag is increased. The track has a nice mix of technical low speed corners and high speed changes of direction before the drivers enter the stadium section for the final corners.,” added Permane. “Pirelli will bring their softest tyres of the 2024 range and even with these the race is likely to be a one stop strategy due to the smooth tarmac and altitude effects.”

“Mexico is an unusual event because of the high altitude of the circuit, which means you run a maximum aero package, but only feel Monza levels of downforce and the cars hit some of the highest top speeds of the season,” said Tsunoda, who finished 14th in Austin. “You even notice the lack of oxygen a little bit out of the cockpit, but not so much when you are driving. Although it’s not a Sprint weekend, we will have slightly less time than usual to work on car set-up and ensure we have the right cooling levels on a track where it is easy to overheat many of the components, including the ICE. That’s because FP2 will be spent entirely working on a Pirelli test for next year’s compounds. Austin wasn’t great, so I’m glad we go racing again immediately.”

As for Lawson, who delivered a stupendous recovery drive in his return to the grid, the Mexico City Grand Prix is a chance to pick up where he left off in Austin.

Mexico is very different to Austin; a different style of circuits, with the main difference being down to the altitude, meaning we run a high downforce on the car. The speeds we reach are some of the highest of the season, which means through the corners, especially the high-speed section of the track, there’s a lot less downforce compared to somewhere like Austin. Grip is quite low, so the cars slide around quite a lot, making it difficult to manage tires,” said Lawson. “For me, I’ve only been there once before to do a free practice session in 2022, so it’ll be similar to Austin, having to re-learn everything, but with the luxury of three rather than just the one. Hopefully some of the things we learnt in Austin will help this week, but given the track is so different, we’ll also be running the car in quite a different window.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to it and I’m excited to get back in the car!”