Twelve months ago, when Carlos Sainz was winning in Mexico City and Charles Leclerc led home a one-two just a week earlier in Austin, you would not have been foolish for thinking Ferrari could play a significant role in the title fight this season.
What you probably didn’t see coming was that role first emerging at the 20th round of the season, and being as an influencer in someone else’s battle, but that’s exactly where Ferrari finds itself this weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, after getting both cars in the top three in qualifying, behind one title contender and ahead of two others.
It was a performance that many predicted prior to arriving in Mexico City, but the lack of overall race pace from Ferrari so far this season – and fluctuating form among the other teams – made it tough to truly believe. Yet as practice evolved into qualifying, the Ferrari drivers remained near the top of the times, right up to the start of Q3.
Charles Leclerc’s first lap was an eye-catching effort and left him on provisional pole, with Lewis Hamilton also in the top three. For Lando Norris to go and beat the pair took something pretty special and left Leclerc disappointed to only be second on the grid.
“A little bit [disappointed] – after the first lap in Q3, I thought this was a really good lap,” Leclerc admitted. “I knew there was a little bit more to come, but not so much. Considering the gaps that were behind, I was like, ‘OK, let’s see how it goes. I will still go flat out on the second lap and see where we end up.’
“I was very surprised, obviously, by the jump Lando did from the first to the second run in Q3. I just don’t think we had the pace today to match that. There was a little bit here and there, but I don’t think it would have been enough for pole position anyway.”
Despite lacking the final bit of pace for pole, it was Ferrari’s best combined qualifying performance of the year and continued some steady progress that has seen the team exploit more of its potential – whatever that might be – in recent races.
“I don’t think there’s a silver bullet or something that we’ve changed significantly that makes us a lot better now than three, four, five races ago,” Leclerc said. “I think it’s a little bit everywhere. I think the processes and all the small differences make a big difference at the end, and we improved all that in the last few weekends.
“We had to manage some other things at one point of the season, which now we are in a bit more of a comfortable place, but the pace in itself is more down to small details everywhere rather than something standing out.”
Sure, Mexico City’s altitude may lend certain challenges that shrink gaps in the field, but Hamilton says Ferrari’s intra-team work is probably the biggest factor in their best qualifying performance this year. Hector Vivas/Getty Images
Perhaps the most notable difference has been a more consistent qualifying run for Hamilton, who secured his best grand prix starting position of the year so far. Building up throughout the weekend, Hamilton was able to get within 0.09s of his teammate and was most encouraged by the steps in the final part of qualifying that have been lacking for much of 2025.
“I think this is a peculiar circuit, obviously, with the altitude, so we perhaps are closer than we would normally be,” Hamilton said. “It’s difficult to say where we’ll be in the next races. I’m not sure we’ll be as close as we are, but I do think through those small improvements that we’ve made – they make big differences. It feels great to finally get into Q3 and be able to deliver good laps and be competitive. That’s been a problem all year, particularly on my side.”
This year has been a steep learning curve for Hamilton in his new environment, but the seven-time world champion attributes some of Ferrari’s recent gains to both the work the team has done to make improvements to the way it operates, but also his own adaptability to the car.
“We continue to improve on our process – from the moment we arrive, to our debriefs, to the decisions we make as a team within engineering, within when we go out – all these different things, so I think we’re just continuously tightening up on some of those areas.
“I think just how Charles and I have worked together to move the car and develop it forward has been really positive over the race weekends. Our cars are pretty much identical now, and I’m finally figuring out how to drive this car that Charles has been fortunate to drive for the past seven years, in terms of the characteristics. I’m finally feeling like I’m getting there, so it’s good.”
While Norris says his feeling “clicked” in the McLaren in Q3, it’s fair to say something also clicked for Ferrari this weekend to leave it as the main challenger heading into Sunday’s race. Hamilton knows the stakes are higher for the driver on pole position than the two red cars behind him.
“Definitely want to be racy tomorrow,” Hamilton said of the start. “I don’t have anything to lose, but he [Norris] does, so I’ll be…yeah, we’ll be quite aggressive, I’m pretty sure. Hopefully we’ll be close enough to put up a good fight.”
Beat Norris and Ferrari could really help limit the damage for both Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri. Show strong pace but finish behind the polesitter, and both Leclerc and Hamilton suddenly become Norris’ allies in creating a buffer to his title rivals. Either way, they could be set to have a big influence.
