Perez ‘not really obsessed’ with securing top F1 seat

By Jun 10, 2016, 10:00 AM EDT
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Sergio Perez is open to moving up to a top Formula 1 team in the future, but says he remains focused on his current commitments with Force India.

Perez scored the fourth podium finish in Force India’s history two weeks ago in Monaco, perfecting his strategy to cross the line in third place.

Of the four that the team has scored, Perez is responsible for three of them, leading to speculation about a move up the grid in the future.

“You never know,” Perez said when asked about the possibility of a move to a bigger team.

“To be honest I’m not really obsessed with that. If that happened that would be a great opportunity to me and I really hope in the near future I can have the opportunity to be in a car that can give me the opportunity to win.

“But right now all I can do is to focus on this weekend, do my best for this one and then after this one think about Baku and whatever.

“The most important thing for me is to focus on the present and try to keep doing the job that I’ve been doing so far.”

Perez raced for McLaren in 2013, spending one difficult year with the British team before being dropped to make way for Kevin Magnussen, and also tested with Ferrari when racing in junior formulae.

Speaking about his podium finish in Monaco, Perez was quick to stress that it was largely due to the unique conditions and not representative of Force India’s pace.

However, the Mexican remains hopeful that the team can challenge Williams for fourth place in the constructors’ championship across the remainder of the season.

“Monaco was a very special race under certain conditions and to get into the points, everything worked perfectly for us: with the strategy; with all the calls that we did in Monaco,” Perez said.

“So it was a race under very special conditions. We are expecting something similar here for Sunday but you never know. I really hope we can carry the form.

“Probably podiums is not the realistic word for us at the moment but certainly continue the progress and keep scoring points and aim to beat Williams, which is the team ahead of us, which is going to be difficult.

“But I think we are making good progress and we are getting better and better every race.”

IndyCar disappointed by delay of video game but aiming to launch at start of 2024

By Mar 27, 2023, 3:00 PM EDT
IndyCar video game 2024
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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”