Ferrari "favorite" in Mexico? Leclerc is right to laugh it off

Who benefits when everybody calls you the favorite and you know you aren't? Not you. Ferrari should enjoy the compliment for about as long as it takes to read it, because in Formula 1 a tag like that is rarely a gift.

The story is simple. Ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, some consider Ferrari the favorite, and Charles Leclerc doesn't buy it. According to ESTO, he laughed in the media center at the Autódromo and answered "¿Quién dice eso?" ("Who says that?").

Context matters. Kimi Antonelli arrives in Mexico City needing only a ninth-place finish or better to clinch the title without depending on rivals. The championship is basically over, and the attention has moved to everything around it. Which is exactly when a "favorite" narrative gets cheap to produce.

The label is a hot potato, and everybody can pass it

Think about who gains from calling Ferrari the favorite. Mercedes has a driver who missed Thursday's media duties through illness; Record reports a viral illness, and Mercedes said the FIA allowed him to skip them as a precaution. Any team in that position is happy to have the spotlight pointed somewhere else, and we suspect Red Bull and McLaren would not mind a little extra pressure landing on Maranello either. We can't prove anyone is doing this deliberately, and we're not claiming it. But we think it's the right lens: when everyone hands you the favorite tag, ask what they want you to carry.

Leclerc's reaction is the correct one, and not just as politeness. Formula 1's own site quotes him saying "we've got to be perfect" to beat the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull. That is not the language of a favorite. It is the language of a team that, in our view, knows it has a window and no margin.

Friday pace is the cheapest currency in F1

Here is where we think the real story sits. Speedweek runs a Günther Steiner piece on Ferrari and its rivals, and it recalls that in the US Grand Prix Ferrari drivers were fastest in all three practice sessions: Leclerc in both Friday sessions, Hamilton in the third session on Saturday. Yet the race in Austin was won by Antonelli, his ninth win of the season, and Leclerc finished second there, as he did in Singapore, according to Motorsport Nextgen.

Read that again. Fastest in practice, second on Sunday, at least in Austin. Practice times tell you very little without knowing fuel loads and engine modes, and we don't have that data. What results do tell us is that Ferrari has been close and not quite there: two straight runner-up finishes for Leclerc. That is a respectable place to be. It is not the place of a favorite.

So if Ferrari tops a Friday in Mexico, expect the "favorite" chorus to get louder. Our advice to the team, and to readers: treat that as noise. The race is 71 laps on Sunday, and the number that counts is the one on the results sheet.

Ferrari's prize is bigger than the title that already left

With Antonelli 123 points clear of his teammate George Russell, the fight that remains is for the runner-up places. According to Estadio Deportivo's standings, Hamilton follows Russell at one point, Verstappen at six and Leclerc at nine. That's a tight cluster, and Ferrari has two drivers in it. In our view, that is the genuine stake here: not a trophy that has effectively gone, but a convincing case that the team has closed the gap for whatever comes next.

There is an uncomfortable side to it as well. Steiner has also argued that Ferrari must establish clear rules of engagement between Hamilton and Leclerc. Two fast cars, with Leclerc himself saying Ferrari has to be perfect to win, is a recipe for friction, and a "favorite" label would only add fuel.

Ferrari should take the compliment and leave the pressure

Enjoy the compliment, Ferrari, but don't believe it. Leclerc's laugh was, in our opinion, the smartest thing said in the Mexico City paddock this week because it refused the burden. If the red cars convert even one of those Friday headlines into a Sunday win, nobody will need to call them favorites. The stopwatch will do it for them. And if they don't, we'd rather they hear "second again" from the results than "favorite" from a rival.