Force India slowest of midfield teams - Perez

Sergio Perez believes that Force India is currently the slowest team in Formula 1's midfield battle, trailing the likes of Williams, Toro Rosso and Haas over one lap and in terms of race pace.

Force India charged to its best finish in the constructors' championship last year, finishing fourth overall, but failed to get either of its cars through to Q3 in Australia last month.

Perez managed to battle back to seventh place in the race, but the Mexican does not believe the result is truly representative of where Force India lies in the pecking order heading into this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

"I think at the moment, it's what we have to do. We're not as fast as we would like so we have to just keep scoring and take all the opportunities until we can improve our car," Perez said.

"I think at the moment we're like the seventh, eighth fastest team. I think basically in pure pace, over one lap, we need to catch up. I think probably compared to the midfield, we are probably behind all of them at the moment. It's going to be a game of how much we can improve over the others."

When asked if the lack of early performance was a result of focusing on last year's campaign to beat Williams, Perez was adamant that the team turned attention to 2017 at the right time.

"No, we fully-focused on the right time on this year's car," Perez said. "I think obviously the car came with some weaknesses. We identified them very early. That can make a good difference.

"We're going to be developing the car pretty much every race, as is everyone out there. It's just a race of development this year. When we compare to last year, I think at one point we were 50 points behind Williams. I believe the team can develop the car.

"We're not at the moment on the level we would like to be, but I think everyone at the team is very optimistic that we will get there."

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