Why the Mexican GP will have F1 format change this weekend

Round 20 of the 2024 F1 world championship sees the sport descend upon Mexico City for a race around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez.

After a hectic sprint event in the USA last weekend, the Mexican Grand Prix will use the traditional format with three practice sessions building up to qualifying and the race.

However, this weekend's schedule will look somewhat different to normal.

The first practice session will take place as usual with 60 minutes of running allowing the drivers and teams to dial themselves into the track.

But the second practice outing will be held across 90 minutes, offering the drivers 30 minutes extra track time.

The alternate schedule has been implemented to assist Pirelli with tyre development for the 2025 campaign with the softer compounds in its range.

This includes the use of a new 'C6' tyre, which Pirelli is considering for a 2025 introduction.

Pirelli has detailed that each driver will have two additional sets of tyres available for the session.

One set will be identical to that in use for the weekend to act as a baseline, while the other will be a 2025 prototype.

Both tyres will not have any identifying sidewall colours, with only Pirelli knowing which tyres have been allocated to each car. 

Pirelli explained: “The plan is for the programme to include a performance run and a long run for each set, with every team running the same number of laps with the same quantity of fuel on board, dependent on the type of run. 

“The only exception will be in the case of a regular race driver being replaced for FP1 by a young driver. 

“These race drivers will carry out the Pirelli test for 60 minutes of FP2 only and will have an additional set of Medium compound tyres to catch up as much as possible on acquiring data for the rest of the weekend.”

Pirelli will then analyse the collected data ahead of a further test planned on the Tuesday that follows the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

However, it will make the task of fine-tuning the cars that bit more difficult for the teams as they will largely only have FP1 and FP3 to set up their challengers for qualifying and the race.