The Debrief by Aramco: Mexico City GP
We turn our attention to next week's race after a tough weekend in Mexico City.
Our aim is to bounce back in next weekend's São Paulo Grand Prix after both Lance and Fernando are forced to pull into the pits before the chequered flag in Mexico City.
Sunday's Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was a challenging but valuable experience for us; neither Lance nor Fernando could make their way into the top 10.
Having started 13th, Fernando pulled into the pits on Lap 47 of 71 because of damage picked up on the opening lap.
Set for a 13th-place finish from the pitlane – having started there due to changes we made in parc fermé – Lance was spun out late in the race. The damage forced him to retire the car on Lap 66.
Read what Lance, Fernando and Team Principal Mike Krack said on Sunday in Mexico City.,
Sunday
#18 | Lance Stroll | Grand Prix
"We had a slightly better car after making some set-up changes overnight, but we still don't have the pace that we need to compete at the front of the grid.
"I had to retire due to contact with [Valtteri] Bottas between Turns 13 and 14.
"Our focus now shifts to Brazil and trying to maximise the final Sprint weekend of the year.
"I know everyone trackside and at the Campus is pushing hard to keep improving, and that's all we can do right now."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Grand Prix
"It was a difficult race and weekend for us. It seems we picked up some damage from debris on Lap 1 after the Turn One incidents and we seemed to lose performance.
"We tried to fix this during the red flag, but it got worse after the restart and so we had to eventually retire the car.
"It's not been an easy triple header so far, but you learn more from the difficulties than you do during the successes.
"We have three more races left of this season at very different tracks, so we will go again in Brazil."
Mike Krack, Team Principal
"We have not been competitive this weekend and we did not give Lance and Fernando the car they needed to compete for points.
"We made changes to Lance's car ahead of the race because our focus is on big-picture learning for 2024.
"Nobody in the team is happy with our current form, but we are a strong unit and will continue to all work together to push for improvements.
"It is fair to say the circuit characteristics did not play to our strengths today, but we will work hard to be more competitive at Interlagos [Brazil] next weekend."
Saturday
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Free Practice & Qualifying
"It was a very tricky Qualifying session today and we've not been performing at our best so far this weekend.
"We've tried a few different things with the set-up, but we seem to be losing pace everywhere over the lap.
"The race will be tough for everyone with the high temperatures and usually there is a lot of traffic around this circuit.
"However, we remain hopeful of scoring points tomorrow. After all, we were running in the top 10 in Austin despite having started from the pitlane. It's a long race tomorrow and we will keep pushing."
#18 | Lance Stroll | Free Practice & Qualifying
"It's been a tough weekend extracting performance from the car.
"We were struggling with pace throughout Qualifying and didn't have the grip to push.
"I got caught in traffic through the final sector on my fastest lap too, so I lost a few tenths there.
"We've got a big job to do from P18 on the grid, but we'll get our heads down tonight and see what's possible tomorrow."
Mike Krack, Team Principal
"It was a disappointing Qualifying session.
"We have not been as competitive as we had hoped and the drivers were not comfortable in the car.
"We will review and analyse everything to understand where we can improve overnight. There is a long race ahead of us and we will give it everything to try and progress.
"Our race day performance in Austin shows what is possible. We will be targeting points tomorrow."
Friday
#18 | Lance Stroll | Free Practice
"It was good to get back out on track in Mexico City today; it's a fun circuit to drive.
"It's a pretty slippery surface with quite low grip, but I think we made a good start dialling the car in.
"We got some decent laps in during FP1 and completed our run programme, including high and low fuel running.
"Unfortunately, FP2 was interrupted by an issue we had removing the wheel from the front left of the car, so we lost a bit of time resolving that. As always, we'll work through the data tonight to try and get the car in the best place possible ahead of FP3 and Qualifying tomorrow."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Free Practice
"Today we focused a lot on race pace and high fuel running.
"It's difficult to read too much into the times, but the set-up felt good and we will continue to optimise the AMR23 in Free Practice 3 tomorrow."
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