Perez: I'm not team leader in 2017

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Sergio Perez says he will not assume a team leader role at Force India in 2017 despite new team-mate Esteban Ocon's lack of experience.

Ocon will replace Nico Hulkenberg at Force India next season after the German opted to move to Renault on a multi-year contract. While the Frenchman is highly-rated, he has only started nine F1 races in his career after joining Manor from this year's Belgian Grand Prix.

Perez will be entering his fourth season with Force India and seventh overall in 2017, but he says his approach will be the same as it has been throughout his career so far.

"I think you always have to give your maximum with the engineers, giving the best possible feedback all the time and that is the same with anyone," Perez said. "Being team-mate’s with Nico or [Jenson] Button [at McLaren], you have to do your work and you hope to have someone next to you that can also push their side as well. That is how you improve."

And Perez does not believe there is any added pressure on him to deliver results with a less experienced team-mate alongside him.

"No… that changes nothing. I have to get on with my job as I have done in other years. Deliver on track and off track."

Force India enters 2017 off the back of the most successful season in its history, finishing fourth in the constructors' championship this season.

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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.