Sergio Perez left Austin with little to show for his efforts, but the Mexican believes that the progress he enjoyed last weekend with Red Bull will put him in contention for a win in his home race in Mexico City.
Perez entered last weekend’s US Grand Prix determined to turn around his fortunes after a messy race in Qatar, marked by a failure to make the Q3 cut in qualifying, his involvement in a three-way collision in Saturday’s sprint and by a laborious run to P10 on Sunday littered with track limit penalties.
The Mexican’s race at Lusail was a reflection of sorts of the dismal 2023 season that he has endured so far.
But at The Circuit of the Americas, Perez managed to steer clear of trouble and bag a healthy batch of points, cumulating his tally from Saturday’s sprint event, which he concluded fifth, with his drive to P5 on Sunday, a position that was upgraded to P4 following the exclusion of Lewis Hamilton who had finished second.
“The gap in Austin was a lot smaller than what it really showed," Perez told the media on Thursday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
"Finishing P5 in the race, I think we were all within a tenth, maximum two-tenths and I think we just lost some direction with the Sprint event.”
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Perez said that he owed his progress to some good hours of hard work in Red Bull’s simulator before traveling to America.
"But we definitely made some good progress and we understood the data after a very good few days of work in the factory.
"We went really deep in the detail and we understood a lot of things.
"We were trying to compensate for our issues and were actually making things worse, so I believe that we are back in contention [for a win]."
Fulfilling his dream of becoming the first Mexican driver to win on home soil in F1 won’t be an easy task given his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen’s remarkable form.
Perez also expects Hamilton, who is 39 points behind Perez in the Drivers’ standings, to give him a run for his money for the runner-up spot in the championship.
"I'm just giving my best, and we'll see where we end up,” he said. “I need to make sure that we are able to improve and step up a gear.
“They [Mercedes] keep improving the car, and we can see that they're getting stronger and stronger every race. So it will be a good fight, which will be great for the next four races."
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