After the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku at the end of April, Sergio Perez was only six points behind his team-mate Max Verstappen in the Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship. Both Red Bull drivers had won two of the four races of the season.
At the following race in Miami, Perez finished second again, but from the sixth race of the season in Monaco, a rapid negative trend began. Since then, the Mexican has only climbed onto the podium once. In Spielberg he finished third.
Ahead of the eleventh round of the season in Budapest, Perez admits in his media round on Thursday: “I think what happened in Monaco probably set me back a step and it took me some time to trust the car like I did before.”
There Perez had crashed in qualifying and finished last. In fact, he also missed out on qualifying for Q3 in the following races in Barcelona, Montreal, Spielberg and Silverstone – while team-mate Verstappen drove on pole in all five races.
Perez admits that recently he “didn’t have full confidence in the car”. “And then there is the external factor of the changeable conditions. And then there is a slightly larger discrepancy,” explains the Jeddah and Baku winner.
Perez hopes for “better platform” from Hungary
In fact, the conditions in qualifying have been difficult in almost all of the recent races. Rain often played a role, including recently at Silverstone. This apparently increased Perez’s problems.
“The deficit that I had with the car in the past few races increases with every change in the conditions,” he explains, emphasizing: “So that was something that bothered us. I think the conditions in qualifying have changed a few times in the past five races.”
“That really threw a spanner in the works for us,” said Perez. In Hungary, the Mexican will be looking to make it back to Q3 this weekend for the first time since Miami in May. He was in the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes last week.
“We’ve done a good job with the engineers over the week and have some ideas for here,” Perez reports, adding, “We’re hoping to have a better platform in general that we’re more comfortable with.”
“And if the conditions change, then we don’t have that much of a difference,” hopes Perez, who has only scored 51 championship points in the past five races since Monaco. For comparison: In the first five races of the year there were 105, more than twice as many.
Perez emphasizes: Don’t forget my good start to the season!
In the early stages of the season, when Perez spoke openly about the world title, he is now 99 points behind Verstappen, the equivalent of almost four race wins. “I had a difficult phase, that’s true. But I also had a great start to the season,” he recalls.
Regarding a return to his form from the start of the season, Perez explains: “As you know, nothing happens overnight in Formula 1. At the same time, we have to look back on my season and if I’m second in the world championship, then there’s a reason for that.”
You just have to see what worked on good weekends and not on bad ones, and for him it’s now about “ensuring that we make progress weekend after weekend,” said Perez.
Incidentally, Budapest has traditionally never been a good place for the Mexican. In twelve starts at the Hungaroring so far, he has only managed to finish in the points four times and never on the podium. His best result is fifth place from last year.
It would actually be exactly the right time to finally have a good weekend in Hungary.