Racing Point technical director Andy Green lavished praised on Sergio Perez, insisting the Mexican is at the top of his game and "one of the best" drivers on the grid.
With a 176 Grands Prix under his belt, Perez is among F1's most experienced drivers but the 30-year-old is also one of the field's most consistent performers.
A true racer recognized for his speed as well as for his reliability, qualities that have gone hand in hand in the past with his team's signature efficiency, Perez is also valued for his technical feedback and crucial tyre management skills which Green equates to his driver having "built-in traction control"!
Perez has stood on the podium eight times since his F1 debut in 2011, and although that all-important first win has so far eluded the Mexican, it hasn't dampened Green's commending opinion of his talent.
"He’s massively underrated," Green told Formula 1’s Beyond the Grid podcast. "I think he’s absolutely at the peak of his career now, he’s not fazed by anything.
"His feedback has always been amazing, his mental capacity to drive the car and feedback on what the car is doing – and on a Sunday afternoon with the race around him – means for me he is one of the best.
"His tyre management is in the top two or three on the grid, there’s not many who can do better. He just has that feeling as he goes into the corner of what the tyre is doing, what it needs, what he needs out of it.
"His slip control on the throttle coming out of the corners is just remarkable, it’s like he’s got built-in traction control."
Perez's grit and determination on race day are often rewarded with points, but the Mexican's task has also been complicated in the past by low-key qualifying performances.
Green explained the origin of Perez's relative weakness on Saturday afternoons.
"He understands that his weakness is a Saturday afternoon in qualifying," said the British engineer.
"But I think part of that is driven by the fact that he likes to set the car up for his driving style on a Sunday afternoon. And sometimes that isn’t always the quickest way to set your car up on a Saturday afternoon.
"But he’s absolutely insistent, ‘this is the way I want it’. And I think time and time again, he’s proven to be right.
"Occasionally he overdoes it and we end up poor on Saturday and Sunday, but it’s very rare."
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