Sergio Perez is adamant that he’ll proceed to companion Max Verstappen at Purple Bull subsequent season.
To be completely blunt, the rationale the Austrian staff, which final week secured its fourth successive drivers’ title with Verstappen, is trying to end third within the staff standings, may be laid squarely on the Mexican’s door.
He has 152 factors to his teammate’s 403 and is presently eighth within the standings, secure within the information that he can’t be overhauled.
His final podium was in China and he has scored simply 21 factors because the summer season break, in comparison with Verstappen’s 126. Even his qualifying has gone to pot, failing to make it to Q3 at 4 of the final 5 outings.
But, speaking to reporters in Qatar, the Mexican is adamant that he’ll retain his seat.
Requested on Thursday in Qatar, if he was 100% sure that he can be retained by Purple Bull Racing, and never moved to RB, the Mexican stated: “Yeah, precisely.”
Requested about his contract he added: “I do not converse. I have been 14 years within the sport and I do not talk about my contracts publicly. So I cannot touch upon that. I do know precisely the place I’m and I cannot talk about it publicly.”
Initially of the yr he seemed to be battling with Verstappen for the title, so the place has all of it gone incorrect?
“I feel it’s extremely troublesome for folks to know that they don’t seem to be a part of the staff or aren’t every day,” he stated. “From one race to a different, as an instance you’re so far-off. I feel when you find yourself not in a position to extract 100% out of your automotive, it is irrelevant how good your automotive is. And that is what occurred.
“, I have not been in a position to extract 100% out of my automotive due to the difficulties I’ve had in the previous couple of months with it. And I feel that is the primary problem. I feel you undergo durations and I feel as a staff, we’re understanding and we’re working actually laborious to be sure that we will repair them.”
Requested if he feels due to this fact that the essential stats are deceptive, the Mexican stated: “On the finish of the day, the staff has all the knowledge. There may be a lot I can say right here. On the finish of the day, the staff has all the knowledge. And there is a purpose why we prolonged my contract in the course of the yr. On the finish of the day, the staff has all the things, and we precisely know the place we’re by way of efficiency, by way of points, difficulties that we have had.
“We’re a staff and we all know precisely internally the place all the things stands, so we’re working actually laborious as a staff to return by and get again right into a a lot better season than the one which we simply had.
“I feel Max has achieved his greatest season I’ve seen from him in these 4 years,” he added. “I feel the way in which he pushed the staff, out of the automotive, how laborious he labored throughout this yr, particularly there have been plenty of durations in the course of the yr the place we seemed actually far and he would push the staff in all of the areas, in all of the features. Max has achieved very large steps out of the automotive. I feel his expertise and his pace has been there since day one, however out of the automotive, how he reads the races, how he works with the staff, how he pushes the staff, I feel is the most important step that he has achieved in these previous years.
“I feel we’re working as a staff,” he continued. “I feel particularly the previous couple of months, we have had related points with the automotive, so we’re pushing in related instructions to attempt to enhance the automotive.
“On the finish of the day, we’re working as a staff. Like I say, you recognize, the staff is aware of precisely what we have achieved, the place we’re, and I feel we’re working properly collectively.”
Whereas he claims that the stats do not inform the entire story, the very fact is that Purple Bull is destined to complete third behind McLaren and Ferrari, not solely a poor end result for the staff that scored a fourth successive drivers’ title but additionally value many hundreds of thousands in prize cash.
Whereas we don’t go together with a few of the conspiracy theories doing the rounds, the very fact is that having failed so miserably within the second half of the season, if Perez is retained for an additional yr there must be one thing extra to the story.
