Perez decision on 2017 is delayed

The Mexican has a contract with Force India for next season, but the deal depends on his sponsors agreeing fresh commercial terms to continue backing the outfit.

Although there seems little doubt that matters will get sorted for a fresh one-year contract, Perez said at Singapore on Thursday that things had not yet been finalised.

“I was hoping to be able to be in a position to announce my plans for this weekend,” he said. “We have some delays but I really hope before the next race we can definitely announce where I will be racing.”

Perez had been linked with both Williams and Renault, but is understood to have shied away from both because he wants to be a free agent for 2018 – when a Ferrari seat could be available.

When pushed on what his future was likely to be, he reiterated that he saw no reason to leave Force India right now.

“I always say I will be very happy if I can stay where I am,” he explained.

New rules

Perez also later explained that he believed Force India could continue to challenge the big teams next year, despite a major overhaul of the regulations.

“When you look at the past when we had regulation changes for 2014, in my third race [the Bahrain GP], I was on the podium for this team,” he explained.

“That went well for the new regulations so we have the potential to do so again. I hope we can move up and next year we will do another step up – although fighting with Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes will not be easy.”