Sergio Perez admits that he hasn’t been performing “at my 100%,” but he is adamant that he will “ride the rollercoaster” amid speculation about his future and turn his season around.
The Red Bull driver has had a difficult run in recent weeks, with accidents in Monaco and Canada and a costly spin in Q1 at Silverstone. Team boss Christian Horner has made it clear that Perez has to raise his game as RBR comes under pressure in the constructors’ championship.
“I haven’t been performing, first of all, at my 100%,” said Perez. “With the circumstances, when you put yourself in difficult positions, I obviously take a lot of responsibility for that.
“Obviously, there has been a lot of circumstances as well, with different sort of races. So I think it’s a little bit of everything. When you are in this vicious circle, we had a really strong Friday, but then I messed up in Silverstone in qualifying. So that was down to me.
“Then, with the strategy in Silverstone, we just throw the dice and see what happened. It didn’t work for us. But I think the main thing is that I’ve been in this business for too long, and I know that it will only matter when I finish in Abu Dhabi. So let’s ride the roller coaster and hopefully get back on form very soon.”
Perez admitted that he’s had a difficult time of late.
“I think Imola, Monaco, they’ve all been a little bit too tricky,” he said. “In Montreal, we had an issue. We’ve been having a few issues, not a straightforward weekend. Some of them has been just a lack of pace, others, circumstances.
“Not everyone is operating at 100%. Obviously, when you are at Red Bull, everything is more noticeable, but I think my main priority is to get my season back on track. I think there is a long way ahead, and it will only matter where I finish in Abu Dhabi.”
He added: “Last year when we upgraded the car it went a little bit out of my hands, I think this weekend there have been a couple of issues. We haven’t had a straightforward weekend.
“There have been different issues every weekend. So we just keep learning from every weekend. We’ve been on really good form just a few races ago. So I just believe that it’s just a matter of putting everything together on the weekends to get back to the form we had early, which is the main priority.”
Speculation in the paddock has suggested that Perez faces a summer break deadline that will allow the team to assess his performance relatively to team mate Max Verstappen, and potentially make a change.
After the Silverstone race, he acknowledged that the next two races were “important,” but when asked by this writer if that comment hinted at a potential deadline, he denied that was the case.
“There’s nothing related to that,” he said. “Obviously, I cannot talk about my contract, but it’s nothing related to that. What I said is that the next two races are very important for me, I want to go on holiday with a good spirit.
“And I think it’s good for my side of the garage to go on a good spirit. I wasn’t talking about anything else, I’m fully focused and fully delivered, and I will be here, and I will be here again next year, and that’s nothing different. I’m just fully committed to myself.”
Regarding Hungary and Belgium he said: “It’s another two races for us that we want to get back to our top form.
“That’s the main priority for me, for the team. I was back in the factory over the week, and that is the main priority for us really, to get back to the form we had a couple of races ago. That’s really it.”
