Sergio Perez has stated he’s “not worried” about his Red Bull prospects despite enduring a crash which resigned him to a Q1 exit at Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Perez entered the weekend desperate to turn around his fortunes amid a dip in results which have seen him accumulate a pitiful 15 points across the last six rounds.
However, the Mexican encountered another blow as he lost the rear going into Turn 8 and span into the barriers with over six minutes remaining in the opening stage.
Perez’s stranded Red Bull car resulted in an elongated stoppage, but improvements once the session resumed ensured he will line up 15th at best in tomorrow’s race.
“Yeah, it was quite an impact, luckily all good, bit of pain on the leg but other than that all good, but ready for the race,” Perez said.
“I lost it, I think I clipped the kerb and at that point, it was raining harder at Turn 8 so it was quite late in the corner and it just sent me off completely in the wall.”
Perez has denied that his most recent setback derived from pushing too hard to reverse his ongoing plight, arguing he was unfortunate with the sudden rain increase.
“Not really, I was just on a good lap but in hindsight probably we didn’t need that lap, it’s something we will review.
“But I think these conditions can catch out anyone out there, but unfortunately it has been me two in a row.
“I mean, I’m determined to turn things around, it’s quite hard to face all the media after all these difficult moments, but I think when we get back to it it will be even sweeter.”
Perez, who was ninth and certain to advance when his crash transpired, has claimed the team will need to review the circumstances that led to him being on that run.
“It’s something that was so hard to judge the conditions, it was raining harder but at the end you were not losing grip,” he explained.
“I was improving my lap, so in hindsight when you look at it we were safe, we didn’t need to do that lap, but you also know a lot afterwards.
“It hurts, you know, that it happened again, especially in the run that I am going through, but yeah I’m determined to turn this around.”
Perez looked to have turned a corner and was stringing together a good weekend up until that point as he was two-tenths behind team-mate Max Verstappen in FP2.
The six-time F1 race winner is hoping that he can use that productive outing and encouraging speed on the long runs to claw his Red Bull back up towards the points.
“I believe… yesterday we had a really good day, very promising day,” he continued.
“I think we had very good information on the long runs so hopefully we can have some really good pace to come through the field and hopefully score some points.”
Perez’s ongoing woes come at a time when there are rumours he could be replaced as Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admitted a review will take place this summer.
“Like I said before nothing changes, I’m not worried,” he reiterated. “I’m fully determined to turn my season around and to focus on my performance.”
Red Bull introduced a huge update package at the Hungaroring and Perez, who is not running the complete package, is optimistic he has made strides with the RB20.
“The feeling with the car is improving, the understanding with it as well, so we [are] definitely making progress,” he expressed.
“Yesterday was probably the best Friday of the season, so there is light at the end of the tunnel but we just have to come through it and hopefully tomorrow can be the day.”
Asked what he needed to stop the rot, he added: “I think we just need a clean weekend, clean conditions, not this variability, just get the most out of it, that’s the main thing.”
