Perez not leaving Red Bull fortune to luck

Sergio Perez has "not a single doubt" his fortunes at Red Bull will change before the end of this F1 season although is not leaving it "to luck".

The Mexican, whose future with the team for next year is safe after signing a contract extension in August, has enjoyed generally positive race performances although has been undermined by poor qualifying pace that has often left him with too much to do on a Sunday.

In Russia, for example, Perez overcame a lowly grid position to run in the podium positions before late rain thwarted his prospects whilst in other races slow pit stops have conspired against him.

In Turkey at the weekend, Perez was back on the podium for only the third time in 16 races with Red Bull, finishing third behind Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and team-mate Max Verstappen.

Asked if his form was a question for waiting for luck to turn, Perez responded: "I am not leaving it mainly to luck. We are working flat out and doing everything we possibly can.

"We are working as hard as ever outside of the car, on the car and I have not a single doubt that I will turn things around and manage to finish our season on a high."

Suggested to Perez he may have turned a corner with his performance in Istanbul, where he again only qualified seventh, he replied: "Yeah, definitely.

"The whole weekend was a lot more competitive. In qualifying, we didn’t get to show that because we were very aggressive with our strategy, so that put us on the backfoot with the soft tyres into qualifying.

"We just missed that couple of tenths we had in hand because we’d shown good pace throughout the weekend and I’m sure we could have had a much better qualifying.

"So yeah, certainly I can see that understanding that I am getting more together with the car."

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