Sergio Perez says Force India will need a ‘perfect’ qualifying to come out on top of one of the tightest midfield fights in Formula 1 history.
Force India brought major upgrades to Australia after testing with a fairly basic package.
Perez set the 12th fastest time in the second practice session of the day, with team-mate Esteban Ocon 14th. However, there was little to separate the midfield – over both one-lap and race pace.
Perez praised the efforts of his team but realises the challenge ahead.
“We achieved a lot today,” he said. “There were a lot of new parts on the car and we needed to learn quickly.
“It’s only Friday and I think we can find more performance before qualifying. That’s always been our strength as a team and we need to work hard tonight understanding the data.
“I said during testing that all the teams are much closer together and if you look at the times it’s certainly the case.
“We need to be perfect in qualifying because a small mistake will drop you a long way back.”
Ocon believes ‘everything went to plan’, as the team worked to understand its new package.
“For the first day of the season it was actually quite a normal day of practice,” Ocon admitted.
“We had a lot of things to try on the car, but everything went to plan. It was all about learning and understanding the directions we need to take with the new package.
“We have already seen a step forward in performance compared to testing, but there’ is obviously some tuning to be done.
“The afternoon session was a bit frustrating because of the red flag and I always seemed to be stuck in traffic.
“Tomorrow is what counts, though, so we need to make sure we are ready and do our homework tonight.”
Saturday’s qualifying is under the threat of rain, meaning it could be the first rain-affected qualifying session since Monza last year. Ocon was third on the grid after that session.
