The Monaco Grand Prix will be “a great pain” for the Racing Point Formula 1 team without rain, says Sergio Perez.
Both Racing Point drivers have been short of pace throughout the weekend in Monte Carlo, resulting in Perez and Lance Stroll exiting qualifying in Q1.
They ended up 17th and 18th on the timesheets but gain one place each via Antonio Giovinazzi’s grid penalty.
Rain has been mooted for Sunday afternoon, and Perez said that would be “the only way” to salvage a result from Monaco.
“Hopefully the rain can help us and we can score some points,” he said.
“I think otherwise, it’s going to be a great pain.”
Perez was 0.136 seconds away from 15th-placed Nico Hulkenberg’s Renault in Q1, with Stroll a further seven tenths slower.
“In the last practice session we never seemed to be competitive enough unfortunately,” Perez added.
“There is a lot of work going on, so hopefully that can help us and we can get some points.
“At the moment it’s been a very frustrating weekend up to now.
“It’s been quite challenging, very small margins – [if we had] two or three tenths to make it through and that would have changed the picture, unfortunately we were unable to get those tenths we needed.”
Stroll had traffic on his second hot lap in Q1, but also conceded Racing Point had been struggling for pace throughout the weekend.
He refused to be drawn on whether the team’s recent upgrade package had worked, suggesting that the nature of the Monaco circuit did not provide a representative picture of the team’s performance level.
“It’s not our weekend,” said Stroll. “The car’s struggling for pace.
“I definitely didn’t get a good run, the first run was fine – in terms of position it was the same but it was cleaner, but I think we could definitely have improved a lot on our second run.
“We’re missing those two or three tenths to get into Q2 and progress our qualifying.
“Monaco’s a unique place and I don’t believe that it completely represents where our car is at.”