Perez anxious for dry running before Melbourne

2013 F1 season

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Sergio Perez says McLaren need to learn more about their new car before the season starts.

“Definitely we would like to go into Melbourne with much more information than we have at the moment,” he told media in Barcelona following today’s test.

“We have a couple of difficult days with a bit of problems with getting the information from the car. But in the end, as I say, it’s important we maximise our chances.

“I’m sure everybody around the paddock had some problems, everybody would like to arrive in Melbourne a bit better prepared, but in the end you have to maximise your chances.

“Like today, we had a very bad day, and we still managed to take the most out of it.”

Conditions at the track were wet for most of today’s test but are forecast to be dry when Perez has his last pre-season test on Saturday:

“If we don’t get a dry day before Melbourne it will be so difficult to judge where the grid is,” he said. “At the moment we don’t know.”

“We know we are quick but we don’t know how quick. I think everybody depends on their updates as well, how big their update is and how much advantage you can take from set-up and updates and driving. So we will see in Melbourne.”

Perez added he has two priorities for his final test in the car: “The last day I would really like to learn about the updates. We have some updates on the car.”

“About the set-up, get comfortable with the set-up because last day when I was here I was not comfortable with the set-up I have.

“We’ve done some changes and obviously I would like to try them before Melbourne. But if I don’t get the opportunity to try them then we’ll have to look forward into Melbourne and there’s nothing else we can do.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Perez anxious for dry running before Melbourne”

  1. Fascinating contrast between different teams’ approaches. Massa just gets on with it and is sounding confident, while Lotus and McLaren appear to be getting worried. Isn’t Melbourne set-up a law unto itself anyway?

    Enjoying James Allen’s tour of McLaren HQ on BBC 5 Live now by the way. “It’s a controlled environment, 19 degrees, slightly positive pressure and very clean air”. Wonder whose idea that was?!

    1. Maybe we should see the “not yet fully in control” from the perspective of that controlled environment. Meaning that when the temperature gets to 18.5 we might already be seeing worried faces while at Ferrari they just work in between about 18-20 degrees without thinking too much about it @bullfrog!

  2. I fear McLaren may have been too radical and lost understanding in the process, as Ferrari did last year and many people suspect now. They may very well be off the pace in Melbourne if our suspicions are confirmed, which would make it quite the turnaround from Brazil to Australia!

  3. I’m quite worried that Perez admits that he is not happy with the set-up on the McLaren. The impression that I got from McLaren over the past few weeks have not been great. I think that they might actually be in serious trouble.

    1. I’m sure they are, they have a great habit of consistently making bad decisions…..
      Its clear that in the past red bull have succeeded by evolving their car steadily each iteration and that at times Mclaren and Ferrari have flopped by trying to revolutionize. so what possessed them to throw away there car advantage in the pursuit of a radical new concept I don’t know….
      They said it would allow them more space for development, but everyone knows you need to be quick from the start. so if they’ve taken a step backwards just so they can develop forward back to where they were, then god help them.

      (From a pessimistic Mclaren fan)

      1. a radical new concept

        Is it a radical new concept?

        1. well its a new concept atleast..

    2. I doubt it. Everyone has been tooting them to have the fastest car.

    3. @andae23 I don’t think that the car is slow .. However as you say , they may go down the wrong setup route which can break the day .. I also think Perez will be able to cope better with a badly setup car compared to Jenson. But still they have free practice to try setup changes ….

      By the way , what is your profile pic changed to … A merc or a Mclaren ?

      1. @Ak It’s a Tyrrell 006 with Francois Cevert behind the wheel.

  4. firstLapNutcaseGrosjean (@)
    28th February 2013, 23:35

    I don’t understand why everybody is complaining about bad weather? Bad weather was in 30% of races last year. Or, they are so smart that can simulate on computers the behavior of the car in such condition? I don’t remember a car which was the fastest in rain last year. They all had problems.

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