McLaren was braced for a difficult triple-header with races in Texas, Mexico and Brazil on three circuits that it feared would expose its slow-speed weakness and not cater to its high-downforce prowess.
But the team's genuine pessimism proved unfounded as it scored another podium with Lando Norris at the US Grand Prix, and the Briton produced a stellar drive to move up from 17th to fifth in Mexico, his race pace easily being good enough for a podium.
When quizzed by Motorsport.com/Autosport after the Mexico race on McLaren's curious form curve, team principal Andrea Stella admitted his team's strong race pace on theoretically weaker circuits still needs to be properly understood.
But he did offer a theory of why the MCL60 performed better through Mexico's many low-speed corners.
"I wouldn't have expected to be half a second behind [in qualifying] and I wasn't expecting to be so competitive [in the race], so I think there's a bit of analysis to do," Stella said.
"It's a pattern that we will have to put together like a bit of a jigsaw.
"The other element that is quite peculiar here in Mexico is that in low speed, you can use ride heights that normally you can't use in any other circuit, just because you can set up the car quite low. So in a way, we mitigate some of our sensitivities.
Source: Autosport