Monaco GP - Practice - Force India Quotes

Force India were solidly in the midst of the midfield runners, with Perez narrowly pipping his team mate in both sessions. Perez has scored points in the past two races and will be looking to continue that run.

Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:13.717, P8; FP2: 1:13.370, P12
“The general feeling with the car is good, but we need to improve the balance to find some more lap time before qualifying. It is going to be a very close battle in the midfield, but if we do a good job over the next few days we can battle for a place in Q3.”

Esteban Ocon - FP1: 1:14.000, P11; FP2: 1:13.382, P13
“It’s always awesome to drive here. It’s a special track and very technical, which makes it complicated to find the right set-up. The track evolved a huge amount during the day and you have to adapt to the conditions and not go over the limit. I kissed the wall gently this morning, but there were no other dramas and we built up our speed with each run. It’s all about getting your confidence up before Saturday and it was important to keep out of trouble.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
“It was a positive Thursday. We ran reliably in both practice sessions and completed our programme despite the red flag that cost us some time. We split the aero items between the two cars and evaluated some new parts. We had the chance to run the new hypersoft tyres for the first time and the feedback is positive: the grip is impressive and it’s an increase compared to the ultrasoft compound. We improved the car throughout the day but we expect the margins between teams in the midfield to remain very small. There is still plenty to do, but we did our homework today and gathered all the race tyre data we needed. This circuit is all about maximising track time, building the confidence and finding a rhythm. We did a good job today but the real work starts now.”


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Monaco Preview - Force India quotes

Sergio Perez

"I love everything about Monaco. It’s my favourite track and it’s one of the biggest races of the year. I always try to enjoy the week as much as possible. I try to soak up the special atmosphere and make the most of the opportunity to drive on this amazing circuit. I always feel very lucky to be driving in Monaco.

“The reason I like Monaco so much is because it’s not easy. It’s a massive challenge and it’s always a tough race. Every lap you are under pressure. There is no chance to relax. You need to build up your speed, build your confidence and be careful not to overstep the limit. When the car is working well and you have confidence, it’s the best feeling in the world.

“Qualifying in Monaco is the most important session of the year. I usually say that qualifying is 99% of the weekend because overtaking on Sunday is very difficult – unless it rains. So there is big pressure on the Saturday and it’s not easy to find space in Q1 when all the cars are on track. It can become a lottery. You rely on your team to help you find some space.

“I’ve had some good results in Monaco, especially the podium two years ago. I always enjoy street circuits and I think it’s another good opportunity for us to score points."

Esteban Ocon

"I think everybody loves going to Monaco. It’s just such a special place. When you think of F1, you think of Monaco. Driving on the famous streets in an F1 car was a dream come true and I’m just as excited to go back there this year.

“The location is so spectacular. It’s beautiful and glamorous with an amazing atmosphere. When you arrive at the start of the week you can’t help smiling when you walk down the pit lane and see all the final touches being made.

“The fans can get really close and I think that’s important. It’s definitely the busiest week of the year. All the sponsors want to be there and every night you have events. That’s why it’s great to have the additional day so that you can fit everything in.

“It’s also a true driving challenge. You have to be so precise and there is no room for error. You have to find the limit quickly and be careful not to step over it. Last year I found out the hard way in FP3, but with more experience this year I hope it won’t happen again."

Vijay Mallya, Team Principal

"Monaco is always a great opportunity to score good points. Both Sergio and Esteban love the track and historically we’ve been competitive on street circuits. You sometimes need the luck to go your way, which didn’t happen last year, but that’s part of the unpredictable challenge of Monaco. The car is getting better with each race.

"The updates in Spain took us a step forward and there is more to come. After five races it feels like we have some momentum behind us now. It’s also worth remembering that in 2016 after five races we had scored fewer points than we have now [14 vs 18]. It’s a reminder of how quickly things can change in Formula 1. There is a long way to go.”

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Spanish GP - Race - Force India Quotes

Ocon had a frustrating day - having worked his way up into the points, he lost a lot of time in a pit stop before retiring with an oil leak. Perez had a better afternoon - he avoided the initial drama, and gambled under the VSC to fit a set of soft tyres, which he used to good effect to overtake Leclerc. He rode his luck, though, after running over a piece of debris which appeared to be lodged under his floor for the closing stages of the race...


Sergio Perez, 9th
“It was a tough afternoon but to score two points in these conditions is not a bad result and a decent reward after a difficult race. I made a good start but I had to go wide to avoid the accident with Grosjean and I lost a lot of positions. It really complicated everything for me because it put me behind a lot of other cars. After that we made the right strategy calls, especially pitting under VSC, but then I hit debris from Verstappen’s car and I picked up some damage. I was struggling with a lot of vibrations and I was lucky to make it to the end. It’s good to come home with some points after starting so far back, but it’s a shame about Esteban’s retirement because we could have scored points with both cars today. We have a lot to improve, but I hope we can be much more competitive in Monaco.”

Esteban Ocon, DNF
“A disappointing day on my side of the garage. We were racing well and looking good for some points. Then things went wrong at my pit stop when there was a problem changing the right rear wheel. We lost about twenty seconds and it put us to the back of the pack. A few laps later I lost power and had to park the car. It looks like an oil pressure problem, but we need to wait until the car is back to know exactly what happened.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
“To come away with two points from such a challenging weekend is a pretty good outcome all things considered. Esteban’s issues today certainly robbed him of the chance to score points, but Sergio drove a strong race making the most of an excellent two-stop strategy. The wheel issue during Esteban’s stop needs to be fully investigated, but we believe some debris from his brake duct caused the problem. The subsequent oil leak ended his race, but we are hoping that there is no damage to the engine.”

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Spanish GP - Qualifying - Force India Quotes

Force India had appeared to be in the mix for the top ten, but lacked outright pace in qualifying. Both drivers exited in Q2 without much of a fight and will need to push hard to work their way into the points tomorrow. It is a bitter pill to swallow after their podium last time out, but with a driver in Perez who is a master at extending tyre life, perhaps they could spring a surprise with a different strategy to their midfield rivals...



Esteban Ocon, 13th, 1:18.696 
“I am a bit disappointed about our end result because we didn’t really have the pace we expected. I was happy with how the car was set up and we can see the updates we brought here are working, but we need a little bit more to close the gap with the front of the pack. I am still feeling positive for tomorrow. We are not too far away from the top ten and our race pace is not bad. We need a good start and then we’ll see what we can do. Last year I gained five places from start to finish and I’d be happy to do the same this year.”

Sergio Perez, 15th, 1:19.098 
“It was a disappointing qualifying session. Q1 was okay and the car and tyres were working well, but in Q2 we lost so much performance. It’s really odd because we used the same strategy as we did in Q1, but the tyres behaved totally differently. We could not switch them on and the car was sliding around, which is why my lap was four tenths slower than Q1. I still hope we can fight back tomorrow and come away with some points.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
“For various reasons today’s qualifying session didn’t allow us to deliver the performance we expected. Esteban’s session was clean enough, but we were missing a few tenths of performance needed to progress to Q3. Sergio suffered with tyre warm-up issues in Q2 and complained about a lack of grip, which meant he couldn’t improve on the time he set in Q1. It’s disappointing not to be higher up the grid on this track where grid position is so important, but we will try our best to turn things around in the race. The car looked competitive during the race simulation runs yesterday afternoon so let’s see if we can recover some points tomorrow.”

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Spanish GP - Friday Practice - Force India Quotes

Force India got their programmes done and it seemed to be plain sailing until Perez was released from a routine pit stop with a loose wheel late on in FP2. He had to park on track and Force India were later called to the stewards and handed a fine for an unsafe release.

Sergio Perez - FP1: 1:20.924, P13; FP2: 1:19.962, P10
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress throughout the day. We have some good information and we have learned about the new parts on the car; we have made a step forward. The balance is still not ideal so there is the potential to find more performance tomorrow. The track was very green this morning, but it improved this afternoon even though it was very windy.”

Esteban Ocon - FP1: 1:21.144, P16; FP2: 1:20.024, P11
“It was a solid day and a big effort by the team to try so many different things on the car in the first session. We managed to complete most of the big jobs and now we need to do more homework to understand everything. I think there is still a lot more to come because we are not exactly where we want to be with the car. Track conditions were not easy for anybody because it was very windy and difficult to put together a clean lap and stay on the track.”

Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer
“It’s been a productive start to our weekend, despite some tricky conditions. Our work today was mostly aimed at evaluating new aero parts – floor, barge boards and front wing – as well as gathering data about the tyre compounds. The wind was reasonably high and it caught a few drivers out but we managed to collect all the critical data we needed to help our preparations for the weekend. There was a small problem with Sergio’s left front wheel at the end of the session, the cause of which we are investigating, but it only cost us a minimal amount of track time. We are in pretty good shape ahead of the weekend with plenty of data to analyse tonight so that the team can make the right decisions for qualifying and the race.”

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Spanish GP - Force India Preview

Sergio Perez
"Finishing on the podium in Baku felt amazing. After a few tough races we finally got a result we deserved. It reminded me of 2016, when we had a difficult start to the season and then we had the podium in Monaco. We were quick in Baku right from the start and we knew there was the chance to score a great result. I’m so proud of my team and the way we did it. Even when we had to pit on lap one, we didn’t stop fighting or stop believing.
“Barcelona was our best result as a team last year so you never know what can happen this year. It’s a track we know really well because of testing, but of course the car has changed a lot since the pre-season and it will be interesting to feel the difference the upgrades have made. Unlike in Baku, overtaking is quite difficult at Barcelona so we will need to be perfect in qualifying.
“It’s great to be back racing in Europe and Barcelona is the perfect place to start this part of the championship. I really enjoy the city of Barcelona and my trainer Xavi is Catalan, so it’s a special race for him.”

Esteban Ocon
“It was disappointing not to finish the race in Baku, especially since we had such strong pace. I know this is how racing goes sometimes and you have to learn from it and look ahead.
“Heading to Spain really feels like coming home after all the long flights in the first part of the year. Barcelona is probably the track I know the most – it’s the first track I drove in single seaters at the start of my career. We test a lot there so we know the place well and we get our hospitality buildings back so it feels much more like a familiar environment.
“Barcelona itself is wonderful: it’s a place that feels young with a relaxed atmosphere and the weather is amazing. Part of my family lives in the city and it’s very close to where I was training this winter, so I know the place by heart now. Last year we did really well there; the pace was good all over the weekend and we raced really well. We have been making good progress with the car recently so we have to target some good points.”

Vijay Mallya, Team Principal
“Baku feels like a turning point in our season. The podium has given us a huge boost and is just the result we needed. It helps us forget about the bad luck and missed opportunities from the first few races.
“Our speed in Baku confirms we are moving in the right direction. We understand the car more and we are taking steps forward at each race. With the podium it feels as though our season is up and running. We now have some momentum behind us. Let’s see what we can do in Barcelona where we will have more new parts to try on the car.”

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Perez - Last two laps to seal podium place ‘the best of my life’

It was a race for the ages, so it seems fitting that Sergio Perez has declared the last two laps of Sunday’s incident-packed Azerbaijan Grand Prix – the laps that secured him a sensational eighth F1 podium - as ‘the best of his life’. 

That the Mexican came through to finish on the rostrum, repeating his result of 2016 at the same circuit, was somewhat remarkable given he found himself in the pits at the end of lap one nursing significant damage.

“Our race was a rollercoaster,” said a breathless Perez, who became the first driver in the history of the event to finish on the podium twice.

“We started with an incident on the first lap when I was hit from behind by a Williams [Sirotkin]. That pushed me into Kimi [Raikkonen] and broke my front wing so I had to pit. I was at the back and then I was given a five seconds penalty.

“I was able to make my way through the field and when the Safety Car came out we managed to keep our position. The team did a great pit stop and I was able to serve my penalty and still come out in front of Grosjean.

“I was looking after my tyres because we only had supersofts left and warming them up was very difficult. I was struggling and every corner was a lottery, but then I saw the cars in front of me were struggling too.”

One of those cars that was struggling was long-time race leader Sebastian Vettel, whose do-or-die move on Valtteri Bottas at the re-start had dropped him to fourth and left him with flat-spotted tyres. It was then that Perez pounced, passing the German for P4, which became third when Bottas went out. His work, however, was far from done.

“I passed Seb but then he recovered and put pressure on me,” Perez said. “I had to give it everything in the last two laps: my pace was unbelievable and I think they were the best two laps of my life.

“I had to keep a very strong rhythm, trying to keep close to Raikkonen, to make sure that Sebastian didn’t get close enough, and in the end we did it. I’m speechless.”

With his eighth podium finish, Perez now stands alone amongst his countryman in terms of rostrum finishes, moving one clear of the late Pedro Rodriguez. With his first points of the year, he also moves from P15 to P9 in the drivers’ standings.

“This podium means a lot to me,” Perez continued. “I am very pleased and proud for myself, my family, my team and Mexico.”

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