Although Sergio Perez feels he is taking steps forward, the new Red Bull driver says it is taking him “too long to get up to speed” each weekend.
Qualifying a disappointing P8 after his pace was a shoulder injury in qualifying, Perez raced his way to fifth place at the Spanish Grand Prix.
It was a decent recovery drive, not his first of this season, but crossing the line 50 seconds behind his team-mate Max Verstappen, he concedes he is still “not there” with the car.
“I think it’s important to keep making those steps and put the whole weekend together,” Perez told reporters in Spain.
“It just takes me too long to get up to speed.
“When we get to a new circuit on a Friday, I’m like adapting my style. So I’m still not there with the car yet.
“But you see that things are coming, but not together. But I think once we are able to put them together, definitely we have the pace to be able to go pretty quick.
“I’m getting more confident with the car, obviously. I mean, every time I get to the end of the weekend, I’m like, ‘f**k, I wish that we can just start with now’.
“But given how limited track time is, it’s very hard to get up to speed especially with not feeling 100 percent yesterday.
“So yeah. Just forget this one and go back again in Monaco.”
Nice recovery, we struggle to pass Ricciardo, but they were fast on the straight.
We’ll keep working very hard to put this car where it belongs! #SpanishGP #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/BEPz1uDlHv
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) May 9, 2021
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Perez reckons his battle with Daniel Ricciardo potentially cost him a better finish as he struggled to find a way past the McLaren driver.
“I think that was everything we could have done today,” he added.
“[It] took me a long time to get past Daniel. He was extremely quick on the main straight. And it’s not an easy place to get past people.”
“I knew that I had to do it,” he added of his pass on the Aussie around the outside at Turn 1.
“So somehow I was thinking pretty much for the whole race ‘How am I going to make it’? But in the end, we managed to make it work.”
After four races Perez is P6 in the Drivers’ Championship with 32 points, 48 behind his team-mate.
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