BARCELONA, Spain -- Sergio Perez admits Force India needs development driver Alfonso Celis to up his pace in this week's test days at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Both Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg are sitting out this week's tests, which occur on Tuesday and Wednesday, in favour of the young Mexican. Celis has already done two of his seven Friday practice appearances scheduled for this year and drove for two days in winter testing, also held in Barcelona.
The Mexican driver, who is hopeful of a full-time drive in 2017, has been off the pace in many of his sessions behind the wheel and compatriot Perez says the team needs him to start getting more from the car.
"We need our third driver to get some mileage, which is important because you don't know what might happen," Perez said when asked about the tests during the Spanish Grand Prix weekend. "He has been quite off the pace lately so we need him to get bit faster, and he needs time in the car, so that's a quite logical step to use him."
Force India showed an encouraging step with its upgraded package last weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix and will be hoping to build on that this weekend. Perez knows the financial package Celis brings to the team in return for his test days and FP1 appearances will help the team achieve a better rate of development this year.
Asked if he would have liked to drive this week, Perez said: "It would be good, but from the other perspective it's good for the team to get some cash to pay for the upgrades! We have great engineers and I believe that [this week] we will have a clear direction on what we need to do, so I don't see it as a big problem. I'm sure what they test here can also be good and we can get some good information."
Tuesday is the first of four in-season test days this season, with another taking place on Wednesday, followed by two days at Silverstone in the week after the British Grand Prix.