Why F1's 'king of the midfield' hates his crown

Seventh place was once the most accursed finishing position in Formula 1, for more than four decades the difference between the all of a point and the nothing of a blank. The cruel, hard line between sixth and seventh hexed many a driver, none more so than during eight mid-season races in 1992 when Michele Alboreto took his Footwork to six of them for no reward.

Since 2003, seventh has offered points, but still, it remains an uncomfortable place to be in an era of three teams monopolising the top six. If you are seventh, you have won the battle for scraps - a great achievement, but hardly nourishing for the racing driver that lives to win.

Nobody has finished seventh more times in world championship history than Sergio Perez, with his 19 seventh places (tied with Fernando Alonso), backed up by the 16 occasions he has finished in each of eighth, ninth and 10th places.

Perez hasn't won a race since his final GP2 triumph in Abu Dhabi almost nine years ago, spending most of his time since then in F1's midfield. He has been higher, of course, notching up eight podiums and coming close to winning the 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix for Sauber before running off track while chasing down leader Alonso. Throughout his eight and a half seasons in F1, Perez has emerged as the unofficial king of the midfield. But it's not a crown the Racing Point driver embraces.

"It's funny how people describe me as the king of the midfield," says Perez. "I've heard that many times: the king of the midfield, the king of the midfield... But it's just what I have, the machinery. To be at the head of the midfield requires a lot of speed, a lot of work, a lot of consistency throughout the years."

Perez is a formidable performer who has produced all that in F1, particularly since joining his current team in its Force India guise back in 2014. He has twice finished seventh in the championship and last season was only seven points behind midfield 'champion' Nico Hulkenberg, who had a stronger Renault package. There's no doubting the legitimacy of Perez's unwanted claim to the midfield crown.

At 29, Perez is resoundingly typecast. That's a double-edged sword for a racing driver, as it is for an actor. It appears to condemn him to a permanent midfield slot, but it also guarantees he still has a long F1 career ahead of him.

Right now, Perez's best chance seems to be staying with Racing Point for the long-haul and hoping it makes good on its potential

He's had dalliances with F1's big beasts - in his formative years he was considered for a Red Bull deal. Later, he was picked up by the Ferrari Driver Academy but turned his back on that to move to a McLaren team that was just starting its sharp decline.

He was rejected there, the result of a team that disliked his attitude, but McLaren was perhaps guilty of expecting a 23-year-old in his first season there to be an unrealistically rounded package. He'd made huge improvements in that area by the end of 2013, so moved to Force India for the following season a far more complete driver.

Perez has made significant strides in qualifying performance, an early weakness, during his F1 career, to the point where last season he was nip and tuck with the rapid Esteban Ocon. But Perez points to another area where he feels he's made significant gains, which also supports the notion he's evolved a lot since the days when he frustrated the McLaren engineering team.

"I've improved in my technical understanding, that has come up massively," says Perez. "I arrived in F1 quite unprepared. You see the young drivers now, they belong to F1 teams and they grow up. Once they get into F1 they are very well prepared and I wasn't on the technical side. That's the thing I have improved the most, understanding, tyres, engineering, set-ups.

"That has helped me to grow in every area. Also, getting stronger at my strengths, which is my race pace, for example, understanding why it is good or why it is bad, and working with the tyres. In general, with experience, I've grown a lot - probably more than others because I was so unprepared on that side when I came into F1."

Race pace has always been a strength and laid the foundations for some eye-catching results in his Sauber days - albeit usually as a consequence of going onto an alternate strategy after a poor qualifying. Key to these performances has been his outstanding tyre management, which comes from his superb ability to sense the traction and minimise tyre slip.

Perez is now a consistently good qualifier, strong in the races and has shown he has the capacity to drag the best out of the machinery at his disposal. His performances in Azerbaijan, where he finished sixth, and China, where he took an outstanding eighth, were reminders of that even though Racing Point has had a difficult 2019 season so far. And yet, when top team drives crop up, he is never more than an outside contender on the shortlist.

While Perez is not quite in the elite group of drivers, there's no doubt he'd be capable of winning races and being an outstanding number two driver. And given his capacity for self-improvement, he could well further build on that in a top team. It would be unfortunate if he never has a shot at victories in F1 given how good he has been for so long.

Right now, his best chance seems to be staying with Racing Point for the long-haul and hoping it makes good on its potential and emerges as a frontrunning force down the line. Ambitions are high for the team under its relatively new ownership, but with an increase in both budget size and stability, investment in an expanded factory and the moves to bring spending under control in F1, Racing Point is upwardly mobile.

That Perez has retained the enthusiasm despite what might, for some, represent stagnation is a credit to his determination

The only trouble for Perez, in terms of staying there, is it could take a long time to crack the top three, perhaps longer than the ownership might realise, given the longstanding spending and performance advantage of the big teams. On top of that, Racing Point perhaps lost a little more momentum than was originally thought in the final months of its old guise. That means, for the foreseeable future, Perez can only keep plugging away and getting the best from midfield machinery.

"When you see teams like McLaren, we are competing against big teams with good budgets and [that are] very stable, so they have been pushing year by year," says Perez. "We probably took a step back and I hope we can recover that soon.

"It's been a good season in terms of maximising opportunities. I do think there have been occasions where I left something on the table from my side, but more often not. I just have to keep doing my work and push as hard as I can every single weekend.

"The team is working hard, I'm working hard and it will come eventually. The gap in the midfield is very small so the driver can make a little difference, so I look forward to making that every weekend."

As Perez alludes to, there have been a few weekends where he's given away a few tenths in qualifying, which can make the difference between a Q1 exit and making Q2. But that reflects the fact that, with the recent performance level of the car, it needs a perfect weekend to have a shot at points. That perhaps leads to a tendency to overdrive.

The other question mark this season when it comes to judging Perez's performance is the variable form of Lance Stroll in the other car. Stroll has turned in some good performances on Sunday, but has struggled in qualifying and on Saturday isn't pressuring Perez as effectively as Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg did in previous years.

But there's little doubt Perez is performing well and doing his usual job of extracting what he can from midfield kit.

The hope is that the upgrade package introduced for this weekend's German Grand Prix will make Racing Point's car a points contender - if so, Perez will be there to add to his tally of minor points finishes. And in doing so, especially in the ultra-competitive midfield, showing that given the machinery up front, he is capable of doing what he failed to do in Malaysia 2012 and converting a shot into a victory.

That he's retained the enthusiasm despite what might, for some, represent stagnation is a credit to his determination. Even if a big team move is a long shot, he's still able to dig deep and deliver for Racing Point. And that in itself is one of the reasons why he's regarded as such a dependable force in the F1 midfield.

"At the moment, only a single team each year can [allow you to] win the championship," says Perez. "We all dream to be there but I'm a very realistic person, I know that the opportunity might or might not come so I'm not obsessed with it. I'm just enjoying my time and making sure I maximise every opportunity I get. It doesn't matter if it's in the midfield or the top-field.

"The only difference that distinguishes the driver that wins the race or the one that finishes seventh is the car."

Access to Sergio Perez was facilitated by SportPesa.uk