Sergio Perez season would have been ‘a lot different’ if key F1 restriction were eased
Jake Dennis and Sergio Perez were both in action for the post-season test.
Sergio Perez has pointed to the lack of testing as a possible explanation behind his struggles in the 2023 F1 season.
The Mexican may have finished P2, the best of his career to date, but it was tinged with disappointment as he fell well short of the standard set by Max Verstappen.
As to what caused his difficulties, Perez pointed towards the lack of testing on offer to teams and drivers in the modern era.
Sergio Perez wants more in-season F1 testing
After the season finale, Perez stuck around in Abu Dhabi to take part in the postseason test alongside rookie Jake Dennis and reflected on the session afterwards.
Asked if tests like this could have had an impact if allowed mid-season, Perez said his 2023 would have “a lot different.”
“These days you don’t have any testing and even in the testing, you are so restricted with the things you can play around with, and with the time and with the tyres,” he told media including PlanetF1.com.
“But I think overall, I’m grateful for the difficulties that I had because it did teach me a lot about the car, about the philosophy in Red Bull, understanding a lot more than the concept of the car and I really hope that this will pay off next year.”
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Perez is not the only F1 personality to raise this point and McLaren CEO Zak Brown suggested the reason most of the cars look the same was because teams are limited with the designs they can test.
“I’m happy we came up with the regulations where we’re able to test a two-year-old car, at least that gives them some relevance,” Brown told Sky Sports F1 in September.
“They don’t learn much about today’s car, but I think that the intent was for it to be more of a driver tool than a team development tool.
“I would like to see some more testing. With the cost cap now, my general view is to give us a little bit more freedom because we’re capped out on what we can spend.
“Maybe if the rules weren’t so prescriptive, you might see some different-looking cars. If you’ve got a cost cap, I think you can then free up some of the rules and let people develop how they want to develop because we’re all capped by how much you can spend.”
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Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
