Sergio Perez: Lap times do not matter much during the pre-season test sessions – Formula 1 news
According to Team Sauber driver Sergio Perez, the pre-season test sessions’ lap times do not matter much and they are “irrelevant” in his opinion.
He believes that most of the drivers and teams try their best to acquire more data in order to improve their respective cars rather than score some good lap times and challenge each other for the fastest times and what not.
“I am not really into times. What I want is to develop myself and develop the car and that makes us focus on ourselves - not looking at others. What I hope is that what we are doing is good enough for our targets,” Sergio told the media.
The 2011 Formula 1 season is going to be Sergio’s debut season and it seems that he is looking pretty good according to his performance at the opening three pre-season test sessions. It seems that he is quite comfortable in his car and he is aware of what
he has to do in order to help the team that is obviously a good sign for the team.
However, one cannot judge Perez’s performance based on his pre-season test sessions’ performance, as these results do not matter much according to the young Mexican. Therefore, each team’s respective performance cannot be judged completely until the season
opening race that is expected to take place in Australia on March 27, 2011.
But one has to admit that Perez has been showing some signs of “immaturity” in his driving as he has had his fair share of off-track “excursions” including a major crash during the 2nd pre-season test session that took place in Jerez and the crash
was clearly his own fault.
Sergio claims that his team is supporting him a lot and they are aware that these sort of incidents happen while testing and that it is a vital part of learning for a rookie as well.
“They weren't upset about Jerez at all. I get a huge amount of support and they encourage me to push to the limit because that is what we have to feel - the limit,” he said.
He thinks that it is important for the drivers to push their cars to the limit as well during the test sessions in order to understand the control level of their respective cars in extreme situations.
“Sure, it is not great to crash because you lose parts of the programme, but I was told that it was okay,” he added.
Other than that, he admitted that he was obviously upset about the incident but he was just trying to evaluate the limits of his car and as a result, he has learnt a lot during this process.
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