Max Verstappen says “nothing changes” for him after Formula 1 drivers and the FIA sat down to discuss tweaks to the series’ racing guidelines.

In Friday’s driver meeting at the Mexican Grand Prix, drivers were seeking answers from the governing body on how racing incidents are judged and whether F1’s current guidelines on driver standards are still fit for purpose.

The trigger for the discussion was Verstappen’s fight with Lando Norris at last week’s US GP, in which McLaren driver Norris was penalised for overtaking Verstappen off the track, but the Red Bull man went unpunished for pushing both cars off in the first place.

It was discussed whether Verstappen should have been punished as well, or whether the Dutchman was in the right but exploiting a loophole that went against fair racing.

Following discussions, the FIA agreed to revisit the guidelines in time for the Qatar GP at the end of November.

But, as far as world champion Verstappen is concerned, he won’t change his approach until told otherwise.

“For me, in terms of racing, nothing changes,” he said. “Look, the rules can always be better, you should always strive for that, right? It’s never perfect. I understand that.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, battle into turn 1

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“But I think, where the problem starts is that on that track you can very easily just drive offline. And if there’s just a gravel pit, you never get into that situation either, because the car on the outside never brakes that late as there’s obviously the risk of going off. And the same on the inside, because then you always go in more carefully, so you never have that scenario.

“On certain circuits with a lot of run-off that is a problem and of course the FIA sees that too. They might also want to, like in Austria, put in a few gravel traps. That does help.”

Asked if he felt there was a move by rival drivers aimed specifically at curbing how he races, Verstappen said: ‘No. I just think they want to know themselves [what the rules are].”

Ferrari’s Mexico GP polesitter Carlos Sainz is hopeful that the solutions the FIA is working on for Qatar will improve the racing and lead to less confusion among drivers about what is allowed and what isn’t.

“I think it was a positive, productive meeting,” he said. “A lot of drivers opened up about how they felt about each situation and what we think is the best way forward.

“How you interpret the rules and those driving guidelines that the stewards are going to apply penalties with, they’re still the same coming into this weekend and probably I think they will be applied in a similar manner.

“But I think in Qatar we will have some solutions that hopefully will offer a better understanding for the driver and better racing in general. Hopefully it should be better.”

Additional reporting by Erwin Jaeggi

George Russell has suggested he would be in favour of Mercedes compromising the rest of this Formula 1 season to gain an advantage into 2025 as the team deals with the fallout of several high-profile crashes.

Mercedes’ repair costs have been mounting up of late after Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Monza practice crash, the Austin shunt sustained by Russell in qualifying, and his latest prang in Mexico’s FP2 session.

This led Toto Wolff to tell Sky Germany of his fear that Mercedes would struggle against the budget cap with further crashes.

Given the situation, Russell said he would be happy to stick with his current car specification – now running Miami-spec parts after his crash – to save cash for next season.

“There’s no concerns with budget cap because we’ve always got a bit of margin and you’re always weighing up what you put into this season versus what you put into next season,” Russell said after securing fifth on the grid for the Mexican GP.

“We may have to compromise over the rest of this season, which to be honest I’d probably be in favour of because we’re not fighting for a championship.

“I’d be more than happy staying on the old floor if that gives us a better chance into next year.

George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15

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“But I think we’ll be able to repair the floor from Austin. I think that’s the plan. It wasn’t as bad as we initially expected and that should be out in Brazil.”

Russell was surprised that he was able to qualify fifth with older components and that the team was taken aback by its pace from FP1 before the Briton’s incident during the second Friday session.

Recounting the FP2 incident, he explained: “The last two years, I’ve been using that kerb every lap. In FP1, I did four laps using the kerb, and there was no problem and then suddenly I hit it and it was like I was a kangaroo.

“That was really disappointing. For the last two weeks, I’ve put so much pressure on the team now with the lack of spares and it’s been pretty unnecessary.

“But we don’t really know why it’s happening. It’s not through sort of overdriving. It’s just the car bites.”

Carlos Sainz says Ferrari’s upturn in form is “bittersweet” for him, because he feels the squad is gearing up to be firmly in the world title hunt next year when he’s no longer there.

Ferrari has overcome a car development setback in the middle part of the 2024 season to regain competitiveness in recent races, especially on circuits with relatively few high-speed corners.

Charles Leclerc won Monza’s Italian Grand Prix in September and was fighting for victory in Baku, while a botched qualifying session prevented both he and Sainz from competing up front in Singapore. But the pair struck back by taking a 1-2 victory last week in Austin, led by Leclerc, which is bringing Ferrari back in championship contention.

Ferrari’s resurgence is the culmination of a long process, with the team unable to sustain its development rate after a strong start to the 2022 season. In 2023 Fred Vasseur came in as a team boss to drive the squad forward in every department as he aimed to improve its culture and weed out operational mistakes, which is paying dividends this year with much improve race pace.

Sainz has been there for most of the build-up, joining Maranello from McLaren for 2021, but he will be departing for Williams next year after Vasseur snapped up Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes at the start of the year.

So, while the Spaniard was buoyed by Ferrari’s upturn in performance as he took his sixth pole of his career with the team, he admitted his Mexico pole was tinged with sadness as he won’t be able to complete his journey with the resurgent Scuderia in 2025.

Pole man Carlos Sainz, Scuderia Ferrari, in the post Qualifying Press Conference

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“It’s very sweet, given how good the car is, how well I’m driving recently, obviously optimistic going into the last five races,” he said after beating 2024’s title protagonists Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, as well as Leclerc, in qualifying.

“At the same time, it’s bittersweet because it gives me a feeling Ferrari might be in the fight for the world championship next year and I will not be there to use it.

“I feel like I’ve been quite a big part of this team during the last four years trying to prepare the team to fight for that championship next year. And the fact that I’m driving well, being fast with the car and I’m leaving in five races is definitely leaves me a bit… I don’t know how to say it, but not with a very good feeling.

“But it is what it is. I’m going to try and win more races, stand on the podium for as long as I can during these five races and enjoy that. And then we will think about next year.”

Ferrari may yet win the constructors’ title this year, bringing the gap with McLaren down to 48 points, and following just eight points behind Red Bull.

Sainz felt Ferrari’s high-speed cornering weakness compared to McLaren, which is still the dominant car in fast corners, will come to bite Ferrari in Qatar, but he expects other circuits to be stronger for the Scuderia.

“We are still lacking in high speed corners, especially in qualifying mode, which makes me feel like Qatar will still be a difficult race for us,” the 30-year-old explained.

“But at all the other circuits hopefully we’ll be in the mix, which means you give yourself a chance at winning at almost every track except for Qatar that I think is not a Ferrari track at all.”

Liam Lawson believes that RB was a shoo-in for the final stage of Mexican Grand Prix qualifying, had team-mate Yuki Tsunoda not crashed at the close of Q2 in Formula 1 qualifying.

Lawson and Tsunoda were sat on the cusp of progressing into the top-10 shootout, and the Japanese driver had looked particularly competitive throughout all three practice sessions – placing third in both Friday outings and seventh in FP3.

Tsunoda then overcooked it on the brakes at Turn 12 during his final lap of Q2; although his crash into the barrier entering the Foro Sol stadium was somewhat sedate, it nonetheless brought out the red flag.

This froze the Q2 order with both RBs just outside it, having both been on better laps and were attempting to surpass the benchmark 1m17.048s set by Pierre Gasly in 10th.

“It’s a shame obviously. We had a fast car all weekend,” Lawson said. “Obviously, Yuki’s been extremely strong in practice. We’ve been building up and I think we were right there in quali.

“I think the team’s worked extremely hard and given us a really fast car this weekend. So they deserve to have two cars, if not one, in Q3.

“I was considerably up. So honestly, even just with a normal sector two and three, it should have been enough. But yeah, that’s how it is sometimes.

“Unfortunately that’s the risk sometimes when you run towards the back [of the pack] and if there is a flag that’s what happens. We did all the right things, we built up and by quali we were honestly on the limit. I feel confident we would have been able to go through.”

Liam Lawson, RB F1 Team VCARB 01

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Lawson nonetheless praised the trail that had been cleared by Tsunoda over the weekend with set-up, stating that his side of the garage had been using his data to help the Kiwi get his head around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

He added that RB was going to have to dig deep to beat Haas in the race, given that the two teams are separated by just two points in their battle for sixth in the constructors’ championship.

“It’s been perfect; it’s good to have a fast team-mate and be able to use his data and that’s what we’ve been doing all weekend honestly.

“It’s been useful, I think obviously having extra time this weekend has helped for sure. So yeah, just a shame we didn’t get to finish the lap.

“I feel for [the team] because they’ve worked really hard and this is a weekend where you don’t often have two cars that are very quick and capable of Q3.

“Haas have now completely capitalised on that and put both their cars in Q3 and because of what’s happened we’re now both out.

“We’re close to the points obviously we see where they’ve qualified. But we’re close and the long run looks good, so hopefully we can move forward.”

A server crash for Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli meant it was unable to provide its usual data for timing screens and broadcast graphics during 2024 Mexican Grand Prix qualifying.

The issue first became apparent when the McLaren drivers who, like their Ferrari rivals, were sent out on medium tyres at Q1’s commencement.

But F1’s broadcast graphics continued to show them as running soft tyres at this stage, while later issues arose with data that is supposed to state if a driver is running new or used tyres.

This is particularly pertinent for qualifying given the drivers regularly try and get through different stages of the session using older tyres so they can enjoy the best grip from new ones for their critical later runs.

When asked what had happened at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez by Autosport/Motorsport.com, Pirelli motorsport Mario Isola said: “There was a crash of the system. Basically, the system was not working.

“We didn’t receive the data from the tablet [used to log the tyres each driver is on when leaving the garage], so we didn’t have the data on our server and it was impossible to communicate that to F1.

“We are investigating the reason why we had this issue because it never happened in many years. It’s strange.

Mario Isola, Racing Manager, Pirelli Motorsport, talks to the press

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“Our system that obviously works with Wi-Fi  and other systems that are provided by other companies.

“We need to understand where the issue came from to avoid that it happens [in the Mexican GP on Sunday] and other occasions.

“To be honest, it was strange because it never happened before. We will investigate.”

Pirelli is predicting Sunday’s race to be a one-stop affair, with most drivers stating on the mediums and then finishing the contest on the hards.

But it has not ruled out some drivers trying a contra-strategy of starting on the hards and running as long as possible in the hope of a late safety car.

If this happens, the soft tyre could be an option to get to the end as it will provide extra grip at the restart and does not degrade as badly as when the cars are running full tanks at the start of the race.

Charles Leclerc says qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix played into his weakness around low-grip circuits, after qualifying over three tenths down on pole-sitter and Ferrari Formula 1 team-mate Carlos Sainz.

The Monegasque could only manage fourth on the grid after saving his Ferrari from a Turn 10 snap as he was tackling the high-speed corners, a result he admitted was disappointing, but not entirely surprising.

He explained that this came as he was taking risks with his driving in an effort to match Sainz, and perhaps needed to think about dialling it back in qualifying in similar conditions to ensure he was less compromised by similar mistakes.

However, he countered that his performance in the long-run simulations during practice had buoyed him – although conceded that starting fourth will make his life more difficult.

“I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised. I was struggling and not feeling well since FP2 with the car. That’s the way it is,” Leclerc said.

“In Q3, the lap was coming very nicely until Turn 10 where I lost the car, but I had to take those risks just because I didn’t have the pace. It’s the way it is. I think P4 is not that bad, but of course it could be better.

“[I’m missing] grip and feeling. Sometimes you like the balance; today I don’t, yesterday I didn’t either. I think it’s probably not one of my strengths, the qualifying in very low-grip tracks.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24

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“I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying, in Monza and here I always struggle quite a lot with that. However, it’s the way it is. The only thing that gives me some optimism is that I think I was the fastest guy yesterday in race simulations, which is a good thing, starting from fourth and making my life more difficult.

“I’ve got to think a lot more in order to finish a lap and try to contain a bit more my will to push extremely hard in those qualifyings, because it just doesn’t work out on those on those tracks.

“Today I tried to do that, it was working pretty fine in Q3, however I lost the car in Turn 10, and from that moment, it was very difficult to finish my lap.”

Leclerc explained that for circuits like Mexico, being more circumspect on a qualifying lap might be a benefit to limit the amount of sliding – although reckons this will not be a problem in Sunday’s race.

He added that in retrospect, giving up his seat to Oliver Bearman in FP1 might have hindered him slightly – although conceded that he might not have the same opinion had the weekend been more fortuitous thus far.

“You slide a lot, just because there’s very, very low grip. You’ve just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks and I struggled a bit more to do that.

“However, for the race pace, it doesn’t seem to be an issue. It wasn’t an issue in Monza, I don’t think it will be an issue tomorrow, so on that I’m a lot less worried. But in quali it’s a bit tricky.

“I think [having FP1] always helps, especially on a difficult weekend for me. At the end, it hasn’t hurt my performance so much.

“It’s been a difficult weekend so of course, when it’s like this, you want FP1, but we couldn’t have known before.”