Perez: 2017 cars not harder to drive

Mar.15 - Sergio Pérez says he was surprised when he sampled F1's much faster cars for the first time in Barcelona testing recently.

The 2017 rules were penned to make the cars much faster, in turn requiring the drivers to train harder and put on muscle to deal with the greater G-forces.

But Mexican Perez told the Spanish sports daily Marca: "I noticed almost no difference in physical effort between the (2016 and 2017) cars.

"I think this point has been somewhat exaggerated," the Force India driver said.

Indeed, with Perez and teammate Esteban Ocon having put on muscle bulk over the winter, but with Force India's car reportedly 10kg overweight, it is claimed the team now wants the pair to lose 2kg each.

Perez's trainer Xavi Martos said: "Checo is one of the best physically prepared drivers on the grid and will have no problem with his neck even if he has to lose weight."

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Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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