Sergio Perez thinks the decision to start on soft tyres gives him the “fastest strategy” for Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix.
Known as the ‘tyre whisperer’ for his ability to manage the Pirelli rubber, the Mexican will be the only Mercedes or Red Bull driver to start on the red-striped tyre in Austria.
As well as opening up strategy options to attack the cars ahead, the soft compound could also give Perez an advantage off the line on the short run to Turn 1 from P4 on the grid.
And it’s for that reason the decision was seen as a no-brainer.
“It was never on the agenda for us [starting on the mediums],” Perez told Sky Sports. “We were clear that we wanted to go through on the soft.
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“We believe that is the fastest strategy for tomorrow and there’s a lot to play for still.”
The main hurdle to Perez’s approach paying off comes in the form of a McLaren starting in third, also on the soft tyre.
“The aim is to clear Lando [Norris] as soon as possible to make sure we are in the race with the leaders soon enough,” Checo continued.
“That’s the main target and make the most out of our strategy, so I’ll be as aggressive as needed to just get my track position where I need to be.”
As for qualifying in general, P5, which becomes P4 after Valtteri Bottas’ grid penalty, actually counted as a bit of a recovery for Perez, who struggled early on.
“We were so far away from that in Q1,” he explained. “We had to use a second set [of soft tyres], the car was pretty much nowhere and we had to do some balance adjustments so we lost a set.
“My Q3 lap on used tyres was looking pretty good but when we went on the new tyres, it was a very complicated lap.
“The tyres were too cold in the beginning. I lost quite a bit into Turn 1, otherwise, P2 was possible with the small margins we had today, definitely, P2 was possible but we didn’t put it together where we could.
“The race is long tomorrow and there’s plenty to play for tomorrow in the race.”