Sergio Perez (MEX) Red Bull Racing. 24.08.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 14, Dutch Grand Prix, Zandvoort, Netherlands, Preparation Day.
Sergio Perez admits that he has had to undergo a deep examination of his driving style and adapt to arrest his slump in form earlier this year.
The Mexican has failed to take victory since winning two of the first four races, only registering four podiums in the previous eight rounds before the summer break.
The root cause of Perez’s troubles derived from being unable to progress to Q3 in qualifying on five consecutive occasions between the Monaco and British Grands Prix.
However, Perez returned to the podium at the last two rounds in Hungary and Belgium ahead of the shutdown, prompting him to reveal how he had overcome his struggles.
“Yeah, it was quite important to finish strong the last two races, especially [since] there is no secret as the car developed I struggled a little bit more, things were not coming naturally anymore, and I had to go very deep on my driving style, adapt to it quite a bit and change it… because the car has simply changed, and I think in the last two races were a lot better in that regard,” he explained.
Perez’s qualifying issues were particularly exposed in the wet, with the Red Bull driver conceding such conditions were when he lacked confidence the most in the RB19.
“It’s quite complicated and I will have to go in more detail than I would like to,” he said regarding the car changes. “It’s just the sharpness basically… medium and high-speed that I’ve been struggling with.
“And that is especially when we had tricky conditions did change, did take away some of the confidence. But I’m okay with it, it’s another challenge for me so I’m looking forward to that.”
When asked how difficult it has been to change his driving style midway through the year, Perez responded: “It’s not easy, because the amount of practice we have you kind of follow one direction and then you get stuck with it for the rest of the weekend, so it is not an easy situation for a driver.”
Sergio Perez (MEX) Red Bull Racing RB19. 18.06.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 9, Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal, Canada, Race Day.
Perez, who sits a huge 125 points behind Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship, asserts that a repeat of his results taking a downturn mid-season can be attributed to the car drifting away from him.
“Yeah, I think in a way, yes,” he answered when questioned on if he had fallen foul to a car’s development not suiting his driving style. “It happened, it happened again.
Then pressed on whether that was something he must talk about the team with, he replied: “Yeah, we have understand a lot of things, especially on the development side, you know how we can figure out… the team really knows what I really like and where I do feel more comfortable at.
“We’ve done some improvements during the summer break to try and make me feel more comfortable, so hopefully this second half of the season we can show a good improvement.”
Although Perez was pleased to have entered the break on a high, he insists that he is still striving to get to “where I want to be” before the end of the season.
Asked if he had now rediscovered his mojo, he added: “Yeah, I really feel like that. But I’m not where I want to be yet, where I was at the beginning of the season when things were coming a lot more natural to me.
“But we’ve done some work as I say, and I believe we will only keep improving from now.”
Keyword: Perez admits he had to change driving style to arrest F1 slump