Red Bull’s Sergio Perez strongly denied that mounting pressure from the Milton Keynes-based Formula 1 outfit’s hierarchy was behind his premature end to qualifying for the British Grand Prix.
Rain was interfering with the proceedings during the initial qualifying session at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon.
As the wet conditions subsided a dry line began to emerge and there was a rush to switch to soft tyres before Q1 came to a close.
Still, switching to softs wasn’t without treachery and Perez fell foul of the difficult conditions, sliding off the track at Copse and beaching himself in the gravel traps.
With plenty of questions about Perez’s future in the Red Bull team, one could attribute his shaky performance to mounting pressure but the Mexican driver categorically denied that being the case.
“No, no no no, [pressure] has nothing to do with it, I’m fully focused on my job, I’m fully focused on getting the performance out of myself, I know where I can be, [Friday] we had a very positive day, things were looking in the right direction, so yeah, head down and it’s a matter of time before we turn around the situation,” argued Perez.
Denying pressure is one thing, but with reports claiming a performance clause in his contract could see Perez lose his seat despite securing a two-year contract extension earlier on in the season, a Q1 exit in 19th place was not what the doctor ordered.
However, Perez remained adamant that his “focus” is on Sunday rather than crisis talks with Team Principal Chrisitan Horner or Advisor Helmut Marko.
“No, no, nothing about it, [I’m] fully focused on my job, which is to deliver tomorrow, so I don’t have to think about anything else, the most concerned about it is myself, so I want to get back to my form as early as possible, and yeah, just fully focus on my form.”
Perez wasn’t the only driver to be caught out in the mixed conditions and even his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen was caught skipping through the gravel traps during Q1, albeit in a fashion that helped him continue.
Describing his incident, Perez said “Turn 9 was tricky, really difficult, especially in the beginning.
“As I was trying to warm up the tyres going into Turn 9, when I downshifted I basically lost the rear end quite badly and I went out of the track, and cold tyres and it was completely soaked of water outside of the track so I just ended up going in the gravel, couldn’t stop the car, couldn’t go straight, [it was a] very unfortunate incident.”
19th on the grid means Perez has a mountain to climb during Sunday’s GP and he the Mexican driver was by no means unaware of that fact.
Perez also acknowledged that he has the required experience to turn his recent rut around.
“[Sunday] will be a long difficult race,” he said.
“If I’m able to score some good points, good on that, but it’s a long year, I’ve been in this business for long enough so I know exactly what to do and how to turn things around, and I will not give up, I will turn this one around.”
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