Red Bull and Ferrari followed similar tyre plans at Interlagos, Schmitz says

Red Bull and Ferrari followed similar tyre programmes in Friday practice at Interlagos, including runs on all three compounds and comparable choices about stint timing and length, Red Bull chief strategist Hannah Schmitz says. She said she has noticed the teams taking similar approaches more often lately.

Red Bull gathered data on all three compounds during the two sessions. Max Verstappen completed 29 laps in FP1 and 23 in FP2; Isack Hadjar completed 58 in total.

The similarity was in the programmes, not the timesheets: Kimi Antonelli topped Friday, with Lando Norris, Verstappen, George Russell and Oscar Piastri a little more than two tenths behind; Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were sixth and seventh. Schmitz thought all the leading teams had tested all three compounds because the gaps were small; she said driver preferences and team decisions also shaped the programme.

Schmitz said the conditions forecast for Sunday differed considerably from those during practice, making it difficult to judge how Friday's findings would translate to the race.