Kimi Raikkonen said his Ferrari felt more like a rally car than a Formula One car during Friday practice for the Mexico Grand Prix.
Several drivers struggled for grip at the Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez on Friday as they had to contend with a slippery track surface and reduced downforce in Mexico City's thin air. Raikkonen said it brought back memories of his rallying days in 2010 and 2011, but expects the track surface to offer more grip as the weekend progresses.
"It's just because it's so slippery that we're sliding around and I was feeling a bit more like a rally than an F1 driver sometimes," he said. "Obviously it's going to improve as we do more and more laps the circuit grips up a bit but it will still be a bit more tricky than normal races even in the race.
"We knew that it was going to be high speed because of the altitude. The air is so thin, I think everybody is running more or less full downforce, but because the air is thin you're going to go fast but we don't have downforce.
"It's fine to go fast but I would rather take the downforce that we normally have in the normal conditions but it's the same for everybody. It will prove to be a tricky weekend but we'll try to make the best out of it."
Raikkonen said the bumps on the approach to Turn 1 can make picking a braking point difficult.
"It's OK. It's a bit bumpy on the straight so sometimes it's a bit difficult to see the braking markers but obviously we have quite high speed and not a lot of downforce so obviously that makes it a bit more tricky when we try to slow down."