Sergio Perez says the level of talent within Racing Point makes up for the lack of budget the team has versus their rivals.
The Silverstone-based outfit has always had a reputation for punching above their weight dating back to their origins as Jordan, who would frustrate the McLaren/Ferrari monopoly in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
After a baron spell through the Midland F1 and Spyker years, Vijay Mallya’s purchase in 2007 and rebrand to Force India started a resurgence of the team resulting in two ‘best of the rest’ finishes in the Constructors’ standings in 2016 and 2017.
For Perez, his journey with the team began in 2014, with his Mexican backing proving an asset in helping continue his F1 career post-McLaren.
And he revealed the contrast in financial clout of the two teams was immediately clear.
“It was evident since the time, day one, I came to the team,” he told Autosport.
“I came from McLaren and I remember the first time I visited the factory at Force India was a shock straight away because I could see the deficits they had on money and so on.
“But as soon as we hit the track, I could see that there was a lot of potential in the team – everyone was very hungry for success,” Perez admitted.
“And [although] the financial troubles were very evident since we walked in, I think the people inside the team are tremendously talented.
“The level of engineering the team has, the level of management at the top levels, it’s a very capable team, and that made me feel very excited about the project.
“In my third race with the team [the 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix], I was back on the podium.
“And since then, it really changed everything.”
Indeed, Checo has since gone on to score five podiums with Force India in his six seasons with the team.
But perhaps his biggest contribution came in 2018 when, as Mallya’s financial situation worsened, it was Perez who initiated the process that led to the eventual takeover by current owner Lawrence Stroll.
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That change has brought even more optimism about the future of the squad who’ll become Aston Martin from 2021.
However, while Stroll has put a strong amount of investment into the team, CEO Otmar Szafnauer claims they are still the smallest on the F1 grid.
“When Lawrence came in, he gave us a bigger budget – so significantly more money,” he said.
“But it must be said that even though we have a significantly bigger budget, say 30% more, 40% more than what we had, I still believe we’ve got the lowest budget and the least amount of people in the pitlane.
“We’re still the smallest Formula 1 team.
“Maybe Haas has less people because a lot of their design and manufacturing work is done by Dallara,” he noted.
“But if you added those equivalent heads in, I would suspect we’re probably smaller than them as well.
“So although we’ve got bigger resources now and we can do more, the one thing that we have got to make sure of – and so far so good – is that we don’t lose that efficiency that we had in the past.
“We still scrutinise every pound spent – we’re just spending more pounds.”
