Perez sixth in Drivers' Championship; Mexican without a contract for 2018
Tuesday 1 August 2017 21:48, UK
Sergio Perez believes he is having his best season in Formula 1 but says he is not yet thinking about his future, despite not having a contract for 2018.
The Mexican currently sits sixth in the Drivers' Championship with 50 points, having finished in the top 10 in all but two of this year's races, and thinks Force India are "pretty much dominating" the midfield battle.
"I think I have stepped up. I have been in very good form with qualifying and race pace. I'm getting stronger and stronger," Perez told reporters.
"I think it's my best season so far. It has been a good year up to now.
"At the beginning [in testing] we were one of the slowest teams and looking back the team has done a perfect job.
"It has been a tremendous season but we should have much more points, especially with the Baku incident. That should have been a podium and in Monaco missing out on seventh.
"In the midfield, we have been really consistent track to track and pretty much dominating that battle at the moment. Although Max [Verstappen] has had some reliability issues, I also have had a couple of bad results and it is nice to be higher in the championship. P6 in the standings, we would never have thought [it possible]."
Perez has been regularly linked with a move away from Force India over the last two seasons, with Sky F1's Damon Hill saying last week he could see the Mexican "doing a great job at Ferrari".
While Perez is, for now, focused on racing, he admits there will come a time when he needs to assess his options for next season.
"July is a very busy month with a lot of races. Right now I'm just focusing on getting the best possible results as it's a very critical part of the season before the summer break," he said.
"I haven't thought about my future a lot. All I know is I don't have a contract yet for next year. There will come a time when I have to see what is available for me."
Force India have brought a substantial update to this weekend's British GP at Silverstone as they look to consolidate fourth in the constructors' championship.
Their last major update in Spain brought their best result of the season - with Perez finishing fourth and team-mate Esteban Ocon fifth.
"We will see [what the updates bring]. It is a good track to measure your car's potential. All the team is quite optimistic about it so we will see where we can be," Perez said.
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