The failure to score a podium means 2017 is not Sergio Perez’s best year with Force India in Formula 1 despite a large amount of success, the Mexican believes.
Checo, as he is known, fell one point short of matching his career-best total in one season with 100 compared to 101 in 2016, but it was still enough for the 27-year-old to maintain seventh in Drivers’ Championship for the second straight year.
He, along with teammate Esteban Ocon, would also score 16 double points finishes across the 20-race schedule, a number second only to Mercedes, and the results have pleased Perez despite the occasional controversy.
“I think the season in general has been a good year with some ups and downs throughout the season,” he said. “The team has done an incredible job. It’s the second year in a row we’ve finished fourth, so in that regard, I think we can be quite happy.
“I think we have maximised the potential in terms of the final result, I think finishing seventh in the championship once again, it’s a good achievement. From my side, I think it’s pretty much the maximum I could get in terms of positions. So it’s been a good year.”
The only disappointment for Perez, however, was not continuing the run of at least one podium finish with Force India in every year since joining in 2014, as the gap between the top three teams and the rest was simply too large.
“Well if you look back at last year, last year was a really strong year for me, but not having the podium probably takes away something of the achievement this year,” he commented.
“At the end of the day, I feel I did my job. I brought home a lot of points. I don’t think it’s my best year with the team, but it’s certainly one of them.”
There were several races when opportunities to take home trophies were missed and asked which most frustrated him, Perez knew exactly where to look.
“Definitely Baku,” he said. “I think Baku, I lost a podium there with so many Safety Cars, I got unlucky there and then the incident with Esteban came.
But that weekend was the one that was the closest, definitely. If we didn’t have a Safety Car or we didn’t have the contact, I should have had a podium there.”