Perez hoping for change of luck in Barcelona

2011 Spanish Grand Prix

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Sergio Perez, Sauber, Istanbul, 2011

Sergio Perez says he hopes his string of bad luck will come to an end in the Spanish Grand Prix next week.

The Sauber driver said: “I have been quite unlucky in the previous races and I really have the feeling the Spanish Grand Prix is when this will change.

“I strongly believe I will score points there. I am very motivated and I like the Barcelona circuit a lot. Also I always did well there.

“In Turkey we weren’t able to show our potential and I hope this changes in Spain and, to begin with, we are better in qualifying. We will bring an update for the car and I trust it will meet our expectations.”

Perez was disqualified from seventh place on his Grand Prix debut due to a technical infringement.

He picked up two drive-through penalties in China and hit Pastor Maldonado on the first lap in Istanbul, damaging his front wing.

Technical director James Key said Sauber are bringing a large packages of updates to Barcelona:

"We’ll have a new, quite significant aero package on the car, which will be a completely new front wing, updates to the front and rear brake ducts, new bodywork, new devices around the floor leading edge and under the chassis, and we’ll be testing the new exhaust system again.

“We’ll also be continuing our work on the mechanical update we had in Istanbul, which proved to be positive. So it will be interesting to see how this works.

“If it works well it should give us a good few tenths of a second improvement in lap time. Our goal is to continue our good race form, to try to improve qualifying and finish as high in the points as possible.”

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    Keith Collantine
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    25 comments on “Perez hoping for change of luck in Barcelona”

    1. I think the verdict is still out on Perez. I want him to succeed – I really do – but I’m having a hard time of justifying it. It’s easy to put on the rose-tinted glasses after Melbourne, but he had a scrappy race in China and didn’t really threaten anyone in Turkey. And Malaysia can’t really be judged because he retired early.

      1. Certainly he did show speed and some racecraft in Australia.

        And there were signs of that after the first race as well. But the magic was clouded by the, to be expected rookie mistakes slipping in.

        As you say, looking hopefull but the verdict is still out on Perez

      2. The verdict is still out on everyone, we’re only 4 races in.

        1. After Melbourne, people were already linking him to Ferrari and so on, so maybe he got caught up in the hype.

          Beautifully said Ed (hey that rhymes!), unfortunately though the masses want results and we want them now.

          I do hope Perez gets the results, I thought it was amazing how he kept his tyres alive during the Aussie GP, more so after when during BBC’s F1 forum he detailed that he had 4 hundreds of a second to spare but didn’t risk it to destroy his race…. in other words, telemetry says he could have gone faster.

          Whether or not his car would have lasted is an ongoing debate.

      3. Melbourne actually may not have been the best result for his development. It raised the pressure him, both from the outside, and probably also from himself.

        After Melbourne, people were already linking him to Ferrari and so on, so maybe he got caught up in the hype.

        It is inevitable for all rookies to hit a speed bump somewhere in their first year. How he reacts to this will be the best indication of his future.

      4. Kobayashi didn’t even finish the first 4 races last season with his longest completed distance being 11 laps and look how much love he gets from the fans today. Its waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to early to make a fair evaluation but he has looked like the best rookie so far.

      5. You could say the same about any of the rookie drivers though. None of them are impressive at the moment.

        1. Di Resta is doing a great job so far I think. Apart from his mechanical failure in Turkey he’s been in front of or within a couple of tenths of Sutil all year

          1. hearing the BBC coverage for the chinese gp.u would think he is already a world champion..

            also when Sutil got the best of him in Turkey, the commentators only made cursory comments rather than there usual 15 min talk about DR’s talent

            such a bias..its almost shameful!!

    2. It’s funny to see how the talk on Perez has quietened down since Melbourne. I think he drove a great race there, but China was pretty poor, but then he is a young driver with little experience. It’s good to see he is an aggressive driver as they are always interesting to watch.

      I really hope Sauber can continue pushing development and give Koabayashi a solid points scoring car. His performance in Turkey was a little flattered by his fresh tyres but I still think they could be up there in the lower end of the points in Barcelona

    3. I’m just waiting for Brundle to stop saying “welcome to real grand pix racing” when it goes wrong for Perez.

      1. Could’ve said that to Brundle pretty much every race when he doing acrobatics in his cars.

    4. What’s the company logo on the sidepod? It looks a bulldog, I guess it’s good they have sponsorship.

      1. I’m not sure if it’s a sponsor actually, more of a personal space filler until a big sponsor comes along and invests.

        I looked about for Sauber sponsors and couldn’t find a trace of it.

        1. Found it!

          The Apasco logo, I think it’s a network owned by Telmex.

          http://www.aprofipa.com/images/clientes/apasco.jpg

          1. Wow good one, that’s settled that then.

          2. Gaston (@golarrazabal)
            14th May 2011, 2:36

            It’s a Mexican cement company, which is apparently owned by Holcim, which is a Swiss cement company.

            The other logo that is often display on the sidepod is Disensa’s, which is an Ecuadorian construction materials distributor. And apparently, it is also owned by Holcim.

            So it appears that, even though they are not featured on neither the website nor the car itself, this sponsorship is coming from Holcim.

            1. Thanks, I just assumed it was a subsidary of Telmex.

    5. I hope Perez does do well this year. His one stop strategy in Melbourne was inspiring! Such a shame both Sauber’s got disqualified, otherwise he would have been best of the rookie debuts. I hope he can improve over the season and show his true potential, as he could have a bright future ahead of him with his links to Ferrari.

    6. Bigbadderboom
      13th May 2011, 18:33

      Not sure about luck, always sounds poor when a sportsman refers to luck as an influence. But I do like what I’ve seen so far, there have been mistakes but I think at the moment it’s more positive. He needs to act on his limited experience and learn early on if he’s to make the most of this opportunity, the Sauber looks a reasonable car and this looks like a good chance to prove himself this year.

    7. Ever since Melbourne i’ve barely seen him on the FOM feed. Shame since I know he’s got the talent after watching him in GP2. I hope he picks up and starts attracting attention.

    8. Hopefully Perez’s luck improves. He was great in Australia, judging by the fact that he was battling Di Resta in Malaysia before his retirement he could have scored then. He’s quick, he just needs to be more consistant.

    9. I really want to see him do well. He’s been pretty quiet since Melbourne. It would be great to see Sauber consistently in the top 10.

    10. I don’t know why funs rated Perez so high. With the benefit of hindsight,What happened in Melbourne was as same as Webber in China and Kobayashi in Turk. He just had a flesh tire set in Melbourne.

      In those 4 races, he has been much slower than Kobayashi.
      Di Resta is the best at the moment.

      1. Blog Raider
        14th May 2011, 5:30

        I think most starters outside the top ten have/should have a fresh set of tyres, in any case he was lauded for a one stop race that day and not three, like Webber, hence a one stopper on the new Pirellis is dubbed a Perez…

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