'No politics' at Force India, says Perez

Sergio Perez has cited the lack of internal politics as one of the reasons behind Force India's success this season.

"We have very good people," Perez told Motorsport.com this week. "There are no politics in the team so people are allowed to do their job.

"It makes a massive difference in the environment of the team. Everyone is working to be better as a team and that is a key to it."

Perez added that while other teams might have bigger budgets which were "a nice thing to have", such extensive resources came with a price and could also work against a team.

"It is important to have a good structure with good people and we have very key people in each role, who do their job properly.

"That makes a massive difference in the team, having good team bosses."

As proof, Perez pointed to Force India's impressive form in 2016. After a sluggish start to the season the team has picked up 95 points in the last nine races and clinched podiums in Monaco and Baku.

Force India are currently in fifth place in the constructors championship, just three points behind Williams. Perez himself is in eighth place in the driver standings, one spot ahead of his team mate Nico Hulkenberg.

Perez explained that identifying the issues with the VJM09 that were contributing to tyre degradation problems was the mean factor in helping Force India get stronger over the course of the season.

"We knew we had a competitive car," he said. "We focused so much on weak areas of the car early in the year and that has helped us massively."

After speculation that he could replace Felipe Massa at Williams, Perez is now expected to stay with the team in 2017, although no formal announcement has yet been made.

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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.