Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes is in the mix with Red Bull in Mexico, but outlined that the team faces a “massive” deficit to Ferrari due to its straight-line speed.
Mexico’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez features a lengthy full-throttle section while the high altitude means teams are lacking downforce for the remainder of the lap.
Hamilton topped FP1 but slipped to fifth, almost a second behind leader Sebastian Vettel, during Friday afternoon’s second session.
“It’s not been a great day but this is how it usually is here,” said Hamilton.
“We’ve definitely learnt a lot and I haven’t had any particularly major dramas it is just trying to understand these tyres.
“It was cooler this morning and then a bit warmer in FP2 and from the short runs to the long runs it’s just hard to pinpoint exactly how to get these tyres working. But that’s the name of the game.
“I think we’re not massively far off the Red Bulls but the Ferraris, they just keep turning up their engine down the straights and the difference between us and them is massive. I think between the rest of the drivers as well.”
Valtteri Bottas placed fourth but conceded that Mercedes’ gap to the front-runners is “bigger than we expected at this point of the weekend, but we know we can find some gains. We’ll work for that.
“[The car] felt a lot better in the second practice, and not a bad feeling, but I felt we were still lacking a bit of grip.
“Both Ferrari and Red Bull seem to be performing well on this track so far, but as always, it’s only Friday.”
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