Sergio Pérez says Force India is “pretty much dominating” Formula 1’s midfield in 2017, following a run of strong results.
Force India has scored a double points finish in seven of this season’s nine Grands Prix, and only missed out on a top 10 result in Monaco.
As a consequence, Force India has amassed 89 points to hold fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, with a 49-point buffer back to Williams.
Pérez, meanwhile, occupies sixth place in the Drivers’ standings, five points clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“In the midfield I think we have been really consistent [from] track to track and pretty much dominating that midfield battle at the moment, it’s great,” he said.
“Although Max has had some reliability issues, I also have [had] a couple of bad results and still it’s nice to be ahead in the championship.
“It’s amazing, P6 in the championship, we never would have thought [it possible].”
Pérez nonetheless feels that despite holding fourth place in the standings once more, Force India is further behind the leading three teams in terms of outright pace, compared to in 2016.
“It’s been a good year up to now, the main thing is that the difference to the top teams is quite big,” he said.
“To be in that midfield fight, always consistently, if not out-scoring [rivals], but very close to… basically [we are] minimising the bad weekends on our side, that has been one of the keys to this season.
“Probably when you compare it to last year, by now we had two podiums, probably less points but we had two podiums in the pocket.
“Probably the car was similar competitiveness wise but it was a bit closer to the top teams, therefore we were able to make a podium.
“We lost a big opportunity in Baku, hopefully later in the year we can have that one back.”
