Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Force India praises ‘amazing’ Perez

Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley has described Sergio Perez’s performance throughout the Mexican Grand Prix weekend as “amazing".

Perez faced huge amounts of pressure throughout the weekend as Formula One returned to Mexico for the first time in 23 years, giving Perez his first home grand prix. With Force India not as competitive as in previous races, the team delivered a strong double-points finish and Fernley reserved specific praise for Perez’s ability to deal with so much expectation throughout the weekend.

“I thought it was amazing,” Fernley told F1i. “I don’t care who you are, to handle the pressure of this event is quite remarkable. I think it just goes to show how far he has come in the last 18 months.

“He took it nice and easily, didn’t buckle under the pressure and you saw how he drove, he pulled off the only one-stop in the end.”

With Perez saying the safety car period compromised his race as he opted not to pit again, Fernley says the Mexican did not lose out at all but he wished the decision to stay out had carried more reward.

“I don’t think we were worried at all because we knew he had plenty of tyre left. I think we were on one hand disappointed and another hand pleased because we were probably marginal on Nico and it played in to his hands but obviously worked against Checo.”

Mexican Grand Prix - Driver ratings

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.