Sergio Perez is optimistic Racing Point will be competitive in all conditions after taking a “good step” in the wet on Friday.
Last weekend, the rain-affected qualifying in Austria revealed a key weakness of the ‘Pink Mercedes’ as the Mexican only qualified 17th before storming through in the dry on Sunday.
With more showers and thunderstorms possible in Hungary, one such cloud burst between the two practice sessions in Budapest gave Perez the opportunity to complete some much-needed laps in the afternoon, the results of which he was satisfied with.
“It was a good day because we managed to get some wet running and get the confidence back after the poor qualifying we had last weekend in the wet, so that’s very positive,” he told Formula1.com. “I’m confident for tomorrow regardless of the conditions.
“We did a good step. I think we understood our weakness last weekend so we managed to do a good step in the wet.”
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In the dry, Racing Point also look as competitive as ever with their two drivers third and fourth behind the Mercedes on Friday morning.
“It’s very early, it was only one practice session,” said Perez on if Red Bull were in their sights. “People were on very different programmes so I think we didn’t learn much in terms of pace.
“I think the target for tomorrow should be well into Q3 and then get a good spot. We’ll see where we start tomorrow, I think that’s the first step, and then we’ll see what happens on Sunday.”
As for teammate Lance Stroll, he was also upbeat of Racing Point’s potential whatever the weather.
“I think we were pretty competitive from the get-go. All in all the car felt pretty good. Not much running in the afternoon, which was a shame,” said the Canadian.
“Let’s see what happens tomorrow, there’s some rain in the area but nobody really knows what’s going to happen.
“Either way, the car felt pretty good in the wet, and in the dry this morning we looked strong.”
