Perez: 2020 F1 speeds will be 'nothing close to previous years'

Sergio Perez says that fans can look forward to seeing the fastest cars in Formula 1 history once the 2020 season gets underway.

The cars over the last handful of years have become progressively quicker following an increase in downforce introduced as part of the 2017 technical regulations.

Many lap records were broken last year, and with little changes in the rulebook for 2020, the cars are set to be even faster.

However, the start of the 2020 campaign has been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic - but Perez says that when the season begins, qualifying sessions will be extra exciting.

“We are driving the fastest cars in the history of Formula 1,” he told Formula1.com. “You cannot imagine the speeds that we do in fast corners.

“It's nothing close to previous years. The qualifying laps are going to be amazing. We are going to be breaking all lap records this year with the generation of cars we have, they're simply the best cars.”

'Strong 2020 car making the wait even more painful'

At pre-season testing in February, Racing Point drew a lot of criticism, as its RP20 car bore a striking resemblance to Mercedes' 2019 W10 challenger.

Perez spoke of how the wait for the start of the season is made more painful due to the team knowing that it has a strong machine at the beginning of the year. 

The Mexican said: “The other day, I had a call with Otmar [Szafnauer, Racing Point Team Principal] and also with Tom [McCullough], our chief engineer, and I was telling them ‘you know, for the first time in our careers, we have a competitive car’.

“We obviously don't know how competitive it is, but we know it's quite encouraging.

“Going to Melbourne in that sense, [with] all the preparation we’d all done, knowing that we had a good car underneath us was very painful, very painful. But it’s a painful time for everybody. We just have to stay united.”