Force India driver Sergio Perez is hoping to build on his points scoring finish from last weekend's Chinese Grand Prix when he take to the Bahrain International Circuit this weekend, however one thing he isn't quite confident about is whether he can repeat his podium scoring finish from three years ago.
That said however, he goes into round three hopeful of the best possible result….
Sergio, you finished on the podium here in 2014 and you have a 100 per cent finishing record at this track, so is it one of your favourites
Yeah, I think it's one of my favourites. I've had good races here in the past, certainly the podium the year before. This track suits my style quite well, so hopefully we can have a good finish, close the gap to the cars ahead, especially now that the midfield is so packed and we are probably a little bit behind in that group but hopefully we can keep scoring good points on Sundays.
Let's drill down into that a little bit, about the midfield. The team has bagged two double points finishes in a row, but give us an insight into just how tight that midfield battle is and what kind of things make a difference to getting a good result in that battle?
Basically the whole difference is getting a perfect qualifying because if you don't get a perfect qualifying it's the difference between getting P8 and P14 or P15. So having a great qualifying makes a huge difference to your weekend. The first lap counts a lot as well and yeah, just have good strategy calls, executing a perfect weekend. Otherwise, that's the difference between scoring points and not scoring any points.
This is a back-to-back race. Can you explain a little bit not how heavy it is for you as drivers but for the team, logistically, physically, mentally?
Yeah, it's very hard for our guys. They have such a hard time, the mechanics, they come here very early in the morning and they leave very late at night, pretty much every day, they are coming here since Tuesday, so it's very hard for the mechanics. I think for us as drivers, it's not that hard. It's another race and we have plenty of time to rest. But especially everyone who is involved in the team they have a very hard time. Having two races back-to-back is pretty much the limit, if week have a third one it would be very hard for all the boys in the team.
With Fernando announcing that he is doing the Indy 500, would any of you like to do the Indy 500 or possibly another iconic race like Le Mans if you were offered?
I certainly wouldn't miss Monaco because for me Monaco is my favourite weekend in the whole calendar, so I wouldn't miss Monaco and normally you have that clash. But I'd like to do some other racing. I certainly have some interest in IndyCar. The Indy 500 is certainly one of the best races in the world, so I'd definitely to do some.
If you were going to race in the Indy 500, what would be the biggest challenge, considering the average speed you have, the cars are most of the time very close, you have a wall at your side? What would you be thinking about on your first runs around the Speedway?
Yes, there's so much to learn from a completely new series. I mean we have been doing this for many years and through the lower series as well, which is something more similar to what we do now, so going to a completely new tyre, new characteristics, new ways of setting up the car, circuits, driving in the traffic. But I think with Fernando that's probably one of his strengths, how he can manage the race situations, so he'll be really good on that. Indy really depends on the last 10 laps, so I think he wqill be really good at it.
