‘Wow’: British F1 star Freddie Slater talks about his wild first ride with Audi
On Friday, Freddie Slater experienced the ups and downs of an F1 career all within just one hour. The young Audi junior driver made his debut in the Mexico City GP’s Free Practice 1, facing some tough challenges before finishing strong.
Driving a 2026 F1 car for the first time, he told SPORTBible how “immense” the speed felt. Freddie, one of the brightest young talents in racing, has won plenty of karting and lower-level races. Many F1 teams wanted him, but he waited a while before choosing. Early this year, he joined the Audi Driver Development Programme while racing in FIA F3. Now, at 18, he finally got the chance to drive a current grand prix car.
Things didn’t start smoothly though. On his first full lap in Mexico’s FP1, a piece of team equipment got stuck on his car’s side, risking overheating. He had to come back in right away.
“I didn’t realize it at first,” he says, “but with the altitude and temperature here, it was a big deal. We lost a lot of track time, but that’s just how motorsport is sometimes. I’m used to it!”
Freddie stayed calm as the team checked his car. “We never got into a rhythm or found the right tyre or power unit settings because we didn’t have many laps to try things. It was a tough session, but that’s racing.”
When he finally got some time on track, he impressed by setting a fast pace near the end—just 1.4 seconds behind his experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg.
Although Freddie had tested older F1 cars before, this was his first time in a 2026 model. He described the thrill of hitting over 200mph right after leaving the pits.
“It’s crazy how fast you reach top speed,” he said. “When you press down after slow or medium corners and the electric power kicks in, it just pulls you along. Going into Turn 1 for the first time was awesome.”
Mexico’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is already a tough track with its high altitude (over 1.3 miles above sea level). The thin air means less aerodynamic grip, and the track is often dusty.
“Mexico isn’t easy, especially on hard tyres,” said Slater. “The car felt very different here because of the aero and you have to adapt your driving style.”
He doesn’t shy away from fast corners either. “I trust myself to catch the car if it slides. High-speed corners are actually one of my strengths. You’ve got to just go for it and feel the limit, which was really cool yesterday. The hardest parts here are the big braking zones—it’s tricky to find the right pressure. The margins between right and wrong are tiny.”
Freddie will get another shot in practice at Brazil next week. But already, his strong lap time in Mexico shows he’s off to a promising start in F1.
This year is Audi’s first season in F1, after moving up from the Sauber team. So what made Freddie choose Audi over other top teams?
“They felt like family, not just a business,” he says. “They support me as a young driver and give me so many chances to improve. The detailed analysis after F3 races, the experience of people like Allan McNish and Mattia Binotto, plus the engineers’ knowledge—it’s all amazing.
“That’s why it felt right. I wouldn’t want to be with any other F1 team.”