Perez confident Force India can out-develop midfield F1 rivals 

Sergio Perez is convinced Force India can outperform midfield Formula 1 rivals McLaren, Renault and Haas as the season progresses, despite trailing a “bit of a gap” in performance. 

A brilliant sixth place finish for Esteban Ocon in last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix propelled Force India above Haas and Toro Rosso into sixth in the constructors’ standings, though it remains 20 points adrift of current midfield leaders Renault following a slow start to the campaign. 

“I think we still have a bit of a gap,” Perez explained. “When you see in Barcelona and other races, we are lacking a bit. We are really close, between Haas, Renault, McLaren, ourselves, we’re really close. 

“Whatever we can gain on a weekend can relate straight away to the performance or final result. We are just looking for small margins. I still think at the moment we are probably at the back of that group but we are certainly closing up.

“I believe that we can close the gap and we can outperform them on development,” he added. “I think it’s so much related to getting the right upgrade, not everything that you bring to the car works always. I think every team has that problem so being efficient in the next couple of races will make a big difference.”

A difficult winter left Force India on the back-foot heading into the new campaign, with the Silverstone-based squad particularly struggling with rear-end stability on its 2018 challenger, while a number of updates including a new front wing are yet to be raced as the team continues to work around the issues it faces. 

When asked to elaborate on the specific areas Force India is struggling with its 2018 car, Perez replied: “It’s downforce basically, to be able to balance our car better. We are struggling quite a bit with downforce so therefore we have to make too many compromises on the balance.”

The team has made significant progress since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, enabling Perez to claim a surprise podium during a hectic race in Baku. Teammate Ocon had scored just one point prior to Monaco but said he is much happier with Force India’s car.

“I’m much happier. We are since Azerbaijan but also since Melbourne really we have been improving the car quite a lot,” the Frenchman said. “The most difficult car we drove was definitely the testing and Melbourne was still difficult.”