Racing Point’s Sergio Perez is hopeful his car will be fitted with upgrades at the Nurburgring for the Eifel Grand Prix in under two weeks, as up to now, they have only been given to team-mate Lance Stroll.
At Mugello earlier this month, Stroll received a number of new parts including revised sidepods and updated brake ducts in what was the team’s first major upgrade of the season.
Racing Point was hoping to deliver them to Perez for Sochi, Stroll however crashed out of the race in Mugello with a puncture, complicating the team’s plans.
In Sochi, Stroll was once more the only driver to have the upgrades, a race that resulted in another retirement for the Canadian after contact with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the Russian Grand Prix in which he finished fourth, Perez admits he is impressed by the upgrades and believes they could put him in the mix for a podium, should he get them for Germany.
“I think we did a good step,” he said. “The team is working hard to try to get [them] on my car for the Nurburgring.
“When you see this is the maximum we could do [at Sochi], we finished 30 seconds from Bottas, if we are able to find half a second then we can be in the mix for the podium.”
Perez’s result in Sochi marked the Mexican’s best result in Formula 1 since his podium finish at the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Before going to the end of the race on the Hard tyre, Perez extended his opening stint on the Soft compound – a decision that he says fabricated the result.
“Luckily I think we did very good management on the Soft tyre on the first stint,” Perez commented. “That basically made our race.
“I think otherwise, we were very close to Ricciardo, one-tenth faster, slower, we were never going to overtake him. But that first stint the management was pretty key to our race.”
Perez will leave Racing Point at the end of the year, as the Silverstone-based team confirmed the signing of Sebastian Vettel earlier this month on a multi-year deal.
With rumours linking him to Haas and Alfa Romeo for 2021, Perez affirms he is in no rush to announce his future plans.
“Nothing is signed yet, there has been some progress so we’ll see in the coming weeks,” he said.
“As I said before, I think at this stage, no one is in any hurry, not the teams, not myself. So let’s wait still, a long way to go.”
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