Ferrari tops early practice but warns of limited upgrade impact at US Grand Prix

Charles Leclerc posted the fastest times in both Free Practice 1 and Free Practice 2 at the Circuit of the Americas, beating Max Verstappen by 0.084 seconds and Kimi Antonelli by 0.042 seconds. Despite the strong showing, Leclerc cautioned that the results were only from Friday's sessions and that the team must remain realistic about the weekend's prospects.

"The feeling is quite good but we need to be careful – obviously it’s only Friday. We are seeing what we expected but it’s definitely not what everybody thinks in terms of upgrade and lap time gained," Leclerc said. He added that other drivers, particularly Verstappen and Antonelli, appeared strong and could challenge Ferrari in the upcoming sessions.

Ferrari has introduced updates to the floor, side-pod inlet and diffuser, components that Lewis Hamilton earlier suggested would yield only a small performance gain. Team principal Fred Vasseur echoed a measured outlook, noting that the classification from practice may not translate directly to qualifying performance.

"It’s a good start, but I think once again it’s very tight. I’m not sure that the classification of FP1 was always relevant for Qualifying. We have a lot of things to learn on the car with the new package and try to do a better job tomorrow," Vasseur said. He highlighted the need to fine-tune the package and acknowledged that several cars could contend for pole position, emphasizing that strong competition benefits the sport.