Sergio Perez says he knew Nico Hulkenberg was near the top of Renault's wanted list having turned down a move to the team himself.
After Perez committed his future to Force India for 2017 in Malaysia, Renault quickly turned its attentions to Hulkenberg and confirmed the signature of the German following the Japanese Grand Prix. Having been Hulkenberg's team-mate for three seasons at Force India, Perez says he knew Renault was interested in both drivers.
“I knew that if I didn’t go there then Nico was very high on their list," Perez said. "So it was kind of expected."
Asked if his own decision was because he didn't think Renault is as good a team as Force India, Perez replied: "It's nothing to do with that.
"I think it's more to do with the fact that I believe in my team. I see the best future for me here and that's why I took the decision to stay for another year."
Perez says having such a strong team-mate has helped push Force India forward over the past three years, with both drivers having to perform to the best of their abilities.
“Very good, I think the relationship between myself and Nico was good. But not only that I think our level was really closely matched every single practice. That means a lot to the team because we push the team forward and that shows in the benefit of the team to have two team-mates that are so closely matched together.
"I always knew that if I didn’t get the perfect lap in qualifying he would beat me and vice versa. And also in the race, and race after race, so that just helps the team because through our seasons [together] we had bad cars and good cars but it was always important to make sure we took the maximum out of each car.
“I think definitely Nico was the strongest team-mate I had up-to-date in Formula One.”
And Perez wants Force India to sign a replacement of the same calibre in order to keep his own performance as high as possible.
"We are obviously looking for the best possible team-mate that I can have and I just hope that whoever comes, comes here with the right attitude, is obviously a quick driver and has the attitude to work together to improve the team and work together to improve the car. That will be important because that makes a huge difference.
"If you have a driver who is too far off the pace - and you see it sometimes in a couple of teams - you just don’t take the most out of the car because you know that if you don’t have a good lap you can still beat your team-mate. I think for me it’s important to have the fastest possible team-mate.”
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