Sergio Perez counters "extreme driving style" comment from Aston Martin

Perez in his RB16B. — Photo: © LAT Images

Sergio Perez

Perez counters "extreme driving style" comment from Aston Martin

Perez scored 577 points during his seven years with former team

Ian Parkes

Sunday 14 March 2021 14:59

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez believes his former team should be grateful for his "very extreme driving style" he insists earned it a lot of points.

Aston Martin technical director Andrew Green caused a stir recently when he was asked whether the driving style of four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel would cause a problem.

In response, Green replied: "I would say it is not as extreme as the driver he is replacing [Perez], who had a very extreme driving style. It was very difficult to get right at all tracks. It shone at certain tracks and didn't at others."

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Asked whether Green's remarks were a fair assessment, Perez replied: "Well, I think thanks to that extreme driving we managed to get a lot of points."

Across his seven years with the team that was previously known as Force India and then Racing Point, Perez scored a total of 577 points that included a win last year in the Sakhir Grand Prix, a second place, and five third-place finishes.

Perez added: "In a way, it helped us a lot in the past, and we just have to keep improving every year to try to make it more complete.

"With every car, you are going to be adapting yourself. It has to be very specific on which aspect you pick up. With extreme, it can mean a lot of things. Who knows?"

Perez concluded his day and a half of running in the RB16B by setting the fastest time in pre-season testing overall on the final morning.

Assessing his running, Perez added: "It's been a short pre-season and we are getting up to speed with everything as a team, with my engineers, with the car, with the setup, working through a lot of different setup options.

"It's good that the start of the season is here so we have a bit of a reference. We just have a lot of things to go through to try to make it a bit better."