Leclerc was one of three drivers to run two of the 2022 Pirelli compounds – along with Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo – as he sat out FP1 with Robert Shwartzman driving his F1-75 as part of the mandatory rookie practice run in the 2022 rules.
As the rest of the field complete set run plans set by Pirelli on two of its prototype compounds for next year – given to the teams in a ‘blind’ allocation, with the drivers needed to run the two types but not being aware which one was during their trial period. – that trio duly set the fastest times of the session.
They had 35 minutes to take the lead for the first time around the Austin track for the first time in 2022, before joining their colleagues on the unmarked rubber.
This is from the harder end of Pirelli’s 2023 range, with the soft compounds being trialled in next weekend’s FP2 session for the Mexican GP after that testing had to be dropped at the wet event in Japan last time out .
Bottas led the pack out of the pits at the start of the extended 90-minute session, with Ricciardo trailing behind – the pair were replaced by Theo Pourchaire and Alex Palou in the Alfa Romeo and McLaren respectively in FP1.
Running the 2022 medium tyres, Bottas set the first place benchmark at 1m40.655s before Ricciardo went ahead at 1m40.474s also using the yellow walled tyres.
After five minutes, Leclerc beat them both with his first run – using the 2022 soft – to take the lead at 1m38.856s.
He was briefly dethroned by team-mate Carlos Sainz, who was finally running prototypes as he topped FP1, before Leclerc re-established his place at the top with a 1m37.614s to close his soft-shoe run.
After a quick trip to the pits to change to the media, Leclerc set the fastest time of FP2 just before the 15 minute mark – 1m36.810s.
He immediately slowed down and after a stint of almost 10m minutes in the Ferrari garage, he completed his time allowed on 2022 tires completing a high fuel run, his times coming in around five seconds slower than his personal best.
This is a repeat of a normal FP2 session, but with this session starting three hours later than the 2pm race start time on Sunday, the conditions were not quite comparable.
As Leclerc did this, Bottas and Ricciardo had finished running their 2022 tire on an anti-run scheme – moving from medium to soft.
Ricciardo moved ahead of Sainz to run second 0.817s adrift of Leclerc with 23 minutes on the board, followed a few seconds later by Bottas, who set a time just 0.029s slower on his first softs sheet.
Five minutes later at the third distance mark, Bottas put in another flying lap to pip Ricciardo and take second place behind Leclerc – 0.715s slower than the Ferrari. Sainz led the drivers running the new prototype compounds only, which included Kevin Magnussen and Nicholas Latifi although this pair also sat out FP1, with Haas and Williams opting to stick to the 2023 tyre-only scheme.
This was determined by Pirelli and was compromised of four runs – two ‘performance’ tests on a 20kg fuel load and two long periods with the cars starting with 100kg of fuel.
The fastest times of the performance runs – a total of five laps, with three push laps required either side of the exits and in-laps – came in the first stint, with Sainz’s 1m38.763s putting him in fastest short and then beaten by his 1m38. 232s.
Sainz was followed by Mick Schumacher, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, with Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly and Sergio Perez rounding out the top 10.
After the two five-lap performance runs were completed, the drivers were then required to complete two 8-lap periods on the higher fuel level.
The times at this fuel level came in around 4-5s slower than those set at the lower level.
Another part of the test included the lower tire blanket temperatures which will be mandatory for 2023 – 50°C, down from the current level of 70°C, and ahead of the proposed ban on tire warmers which will come in for 2024.
This could have been a factor in the high number of mistakes seen during FP2 on Friday, with several drivers having lurid slides leaving corners on the tweaked tires for next year, which are understood to be subtle design changes rather than any wholesale adjustment by Pirelli.
These changes include ensuring that the 2023 tires do not have the low through slow speed characteristic that the drivers have not enjoyed on the current range.
Fernando Alonso took a big snap out of Turn 1 – the uphill hairpin on the left at the start of Austin’s lap – and Turn 11 running onto the back straight.
Both Hamilton and Norris suffered dramatic slides coming through the fast, downhill left that forms the penultimate corner – with the latter also sliding wildly into the pits in the early stages.
At one point, Sainz described his run on the prototype tires as “Tokyo drift”.
The run of the 17 drivers running the prototypes only was capped at 26 laps after the four runs required by Pirelli, while Leclerc (37), Bottas (37) and Ricciardo (40) increased more.
They ended the session as the only runners, with Leclerc’s first flying lap on the prototypes coming in 0.1s slower than Sainz’s personal best in fourth overall.
