Perez: "It takes me quite a bit to build it up through the weekend"

Sergio Perez is not having the season he was hoping for. The Mexican often alternates excellent races with weekends where he can not get going. The 31-year-old driver says the most profit can be made on Friday.

Stronger start to the weekend

Perez's performance in the races is often good. But this is often preceded by a less strong qualifying, which forces him to storm to the front from the midfield. "I have to build up that knowledge with the car to be able to extract more out of it on Fridays. I need better Fridays," Perez explained at The Race.

Perez compares his confidence in his first year at Red Bull Racing with his confidence at Racing Point: "It takes me quite a bit to build it up through the weekend. When I was at Racing Point I remember FP1 it was just so normal, to get to 100%."

Learning from Verstappen

To get better with the car, Perez often looks to teammate Max Verstappen. "We cannot take away from Max, he’s really at one with the car and he’s obviously the fastest current F1 driver on the grid – the most at one with the car, hardly makes any mistakes. I have a pretty strong benchmark in that regard with him."

Perez's highlight of 2021 so far came at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which he managed to win after Verstappen crashed out from the lead. Perez did nothing wrong that weekend and took the momentum to France, where he finished third after an excellent race. Since then the Mexican has not reached the podium.