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Perez feels mid-year testing would have changed his season
Sergio Perez believes a mid-season testing opportunity could have had a major impact on his year after a productive day of experimentation in Abu Dhabi.
Red Bull dominated 2023 with 21 victories from 22 races, but Max Verstappen accounted for 19 of those successes while Perez struggled after the opening four rounds. On Tuesday he completed a full day of testing at the Yas Marina Circuit and said the way it allowed him to work on specific items with the car would have clearly helped earlier int he season.
“It would have been a lot different, yes,” Perez said. “Obviously, these days you don’t have any testing and then in the testing you are so restricted with the things you can play around and with the time and the tires.
“But I think overall I’m grateful for the difficult season I had because it taught me a lot about the car, about the philosophy of Red Bull, understanding a lot more the concept of the car and I really hope that this will pay off next year.”
While wishing such a chance had come earlier in the year, Perez – who completed 117 laps and was fourth-fastest – said the extra track time in RB19 has provided plenty of clear indicators of areas he can improve over the off-season.
“It’s very important to be able to have this sort of day together with the team because we have some homework to come that we are able to work on and be productive," he said.
“It was good to give feedback to the engineers, it’s always helpful to go into the winter with some good information and that was productive for us. I think we can gather some good data and take it home.
“It’s been dominant for Red Bull, yes, but it was quite tough for me. I’m sure we’re going to have a great car again next year, hopefully a little bit nicer balance on my side and hopefully we can keep this domination going as a team.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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