Sergio Perez confidently asserts that he remains unfazed by the ongoing speculation surrounding his future with Red Bull, following another challenging weekend at the British Grand Prix.
Despite enduring a disappointing result, the Mexican driver faced setbacks during qualifying, failing to progress to Q3 for the fifth consecutive time.
His early-race contact with Esteban Ocon and an ill-timed pit stop before the deployment of the Safety Car added further obstacles to his comeback efforts, ultimately finishing in sixth place.
“Nothing worked today, I had a great launch today but then I got hit by Ocon on Lap 1 and I lost position instead of gaining, so it made it harder the recovery, I used too much my tyres in that first stint, we boxed I think three laps before the Safety Car so it wasn’t meant to be, but I the end we gave it all and did what we possibly could,” he lamented.
Since securing pole position in Miami back in May, the 33-year-old has struggled to reach a Q3 session, which he acknowledges as a recurring challenge. To safeguard his race-day opportunities, he recognizes the imperative need to address and conquer these persistent qualifying issues.
“I think it’s just amount of detail, I have become a little bit more sensitive to the car in the last few races, especially on a Saturday, on low fuel, something that I’m going to be working on from tomorrow in the simulator with the team,” he revealed.
“We have some ideas, but we operate in such a small window of detail that, yeah, I mean, you know, just that we need a strong Saturday and the positive thing is the pace is there on Sundays where the points are given but we have to sort out and have a clean weekend because the pace is there.”
Perez maintains a positive outlook, confident that he will overcome his challenges in delivering strong performances during qualifying sessions in the near future.
“We’re making a lot of progress because the pace is there on Sundays, but it’s just the whole weekend overall, we’ve had a few bad weekends,” he acknowledged.
“At the end of the day, it only matters where we finish in Abu Dhabi, it’s a long season still, and I fully believe I can get my season back on track.”
As for speculation regarding his long-term future with the Red Bull team, Perez, who is now 99 points adrift of Verstappen, insists he “couldn’t care less” about any rumours.
“In F1 in 13 years I’ve seen it all, not worried about any of that, I’m mainly focused about getting my season back on track and making sure I keep enjoying this,” he added.
“I have full support from Helmut [Marko] and Christian [Horner], the whole team is fully supporting me, they know what I can do, they know my potential, and they are fully behind me.”
