Sergio Perez said his Force India’s poor tyre degradation will make for a difficult race after equalling the team’s best qualifying result of the year in Abu Dhabi.
However he said he was encouraged by the progress the team has made following a difficult weekend in Brazil.
“We had a very poor weekend in Sao Paolo so we did a very deep analysis from that and we learned a lot of things,” Perez told reporters in Abu Dhabi, “I think today it shows that we have learned something from a poor weekend which is important.”
“Looking forward for tomorrow I think we have out-qualified the car’s pace by a couple of places so tomorrow will be very difficult to keep the quick cars behind. But anything can happen and my main objective is to get Kimi [Raikkonen] at the start.”
Perez described the tyre degradation on his car as “quite poor – it’s not something that’s great at the moment for us.”
“If we start fighting from lap one onwards and we stop protecting the tyre we might deg off the tyre completely and ruin our race,” he added.
“So it’s going to be a matter of going to do our own race and trying to maintain first of all the position but if there’s anything better than what we are then definitely we will try to take it.”
B (@)
28th November 2015, 15:43
Can someone check Perez’s car for doping ??
Because that lap was stunning..
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
28th November 2015, 16:29
@subhashs He looked great. I bet SFI have “Radcliffed” the VJM08.
After SFI’s comments before the weekend, I wonder if there’s a possibility that SFI have split the car’s strategy for tomorrow. One car quick for qualifying and one conservative for the race. I think Sainz has decidedly been setting his car for qualifying, I hope the risky engine does not blow up, because in my view he hasn’t shown anything on race trim this year.
verstappen (@verstappen)
28th November 2015, 16:06
What Does Perez’ performance say about him and Huelkenberg?
Both were on the prospect list of Ferrari but here they are fighting eachother at Force India.
I guess it’s about consistency and luck – having it and creating it.
zomtec
28th November 2015, 17:04
I don’t get it.
anon
28th November 2015, 17:43
@verstappen, in the case of both drivers, I think that their respective performances are about what you’d expect.
Perez is, in the right situations, a very quick and capable driver who has shown good racecraft, but his performances tend to be a little inconsistent – that, combined with his inexperience at the time, was why Ferrari were interested but hesitated about signing him in 2012.
As for Hulkenberg, whilst he has shown great consistency and talent alongside his racecraft, he has never quite managed to hit the same peaks in performance that Perez has – in the situations where Force India have looked more competitive, Perez has managed to upstage him at critical times.
The 2014 Bahrain GP kind of encapsulates that situation – Hulkenberg’s fighting 5th place would, in most circumstances, have been hailed as impressive, had it not been for Perez forcing his way past him to secure 3rd, despite Ricciardo’s heavy pressure in the closing laps.
Vihang Wagh
28th November 2015, 19:10
Perez did not force his way past him. He caught him unawares. Moreover, he would have not got the podium had hulkenberg not had held back ricciardo intentionally. True, Perez was the better driver that day but hulk helped him too. Hullk underperforms because he underestimates himself.
kaiser (@kaiser)
28th November 2015, 20:14
I think I saw a statistic, where Perez had the best first lap position gain/loss this year, and Kimi is not known as great at launch, so it will be interesting how they both approach the first corner. can anyone support this fact?
@HoHum (@hohum)
28th November 2015, 21:25
So there it is folks, plain and simple, the cars can be set-up to go faster but the tyres will wear out to fast, Perez can be fast but Pirelli tyres reward driving slow. We don’t need more power, bigger wings or wider track, we just need tyres that don’t give up when pushed and all those old lap records will be gone.