Sergio Perez believes he can target a podium on his return after two weeks out with Covid-19 in Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
After a subdued pair of races at Silverstone, Racing Point appear back on the back with the Mexican taking fourth and teammate Lance Stroll fifth in qualifying in Barcelona.
And while many are anticipating a big battle between Max Verstappen and the two Mercedes’ for victory in the race, Perez has his own plans, which would also massively help the German manufacturer.
“If we are able to get a good start and get ahead of Max, we may be able to hold him back,” he told Sky Sports.
“Here is not an easy track to pass, and the amount of saving and management that we have to do tomorrow is going to be extreme.
“We don’t quite have the pace to beat Red Bull and especially the Mercedes, but who knows? If we are able to get ahead in lap one, who knows.”
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With teams heavily criticising the hard tyre, Sunday is expected to see two-stop strategies at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, something that was almost confirmed when the front-runners opted for the soft tyre in Q2.
However, Checo is not ruling out someone taking a gamble on the white-striped rubber and doing a one-stop.
“It really depends how your first laps go, what sort of temperature you have, and the wind,” he claimed.
“The wind has a really big impact on the balance and the levels of sliding.
“It’s very open, everything for tomorrow.”
While Perez has eyes on the Red Bull ahead, teammate Stroll is more concerned about the one behind when weighing up his race prospects.
“It looked like the Red Bull had the upper hand on us through qualifying. We’ve got to be happy with fifth,” the Canadian commented.
“All in all, I’m happy with fifth, we’re in a good place to fight tomorrow. I expect Alex [Albon] to have good pace. He demonstrated that last weekend at Silverstone.
“We’ll just have to run our race, get a good start, and from there optimise the strategy. That’s all we can focus on.
“It’s going to be a very hot race tomorrow. I expect it to be challenging for everyone out there.”
