Sergio Perez has disclosed that Red Bull will be implementing a change on his car at the Belgian Grand Prix which should help to bring an end to his Formula 1 slump.
Perez heads into this weekend under pressure to deliver amid speculation that he could be replaced during the summer break should his recurring struggles continue.
The Mexican has contributed a pitiful 21 points across the last seven rounds to languish seventh in the championship, 141 points behind team-mate Max Verstappen.
But while his weekend unravelled at the Hungaroring when he crashed on a damp track in Q1, Perez recovered with a strong drive in the race to come in seventh place.
Perez has derived optimism from his nine-place climb, as he divulged that Red Bull will correct several faults that should put him in a place to turn around his fortunes.
“The Friday we were the fastest car and obviously on Sunday we were a bit compromised with the mistake I did in qualifying,” Perez discussed.
“So I think there are a lot of positives to take from Hungary. Things that we learned, that we were doing better.
“Here we’re going to be on a bit of a different spec [to Hungary], but, I really hope that that’s a building momentum to the things that we were doing.
“We were able to find a couple of things that were just out of sync that potentially can transform our season in the coming races.”
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Perez agreed with Red Bull boss Christian Horner that the RB20 has a narrow working range, but he revealed that a tweak should assist in improving his car’s balance.
“It’s definitely been peakier and harder,” he said regarding Red Bull’s current package. “We are changing as well for this weekend.
“We’re doing another change that hopefully will make me feel the car a little bit better. We’ll try that in FP1 and we’ll see.
“Something cannot go too much into detail, but it’s something to improve the feeling with the car.
“If it works, great, but if not, I think we already did really good steps forward in Hungary.”
Perez has clarified that the alteration has been sampled on the simulator with success, though he is mindful that practice time could be limited with rain on the radar.
“I’ve tried that in the sim. It felt positive,” he expanded. “It had my feeling with the car, so I really hope that it translates well to the track. We’ll see.
“The weather is not looking great, so probably we don’t get much running, but we’ll see.”
Perez has tended to struggle once Red Bull brings developments to the car and the six-time F1 race winner has explained that such a trend has been no coincidence.
“At the moment, I feel like there has been something that we have introduced in a few of the weekends,” he added.
“Whether it’s with an upgrade or with setup or with the tyres. These cars are so sensitive that has made this window a lot smaller.
“Like I said, there will be teams that will be in a similar situation to us.
“There are teams that have been in this situation, but Red Bull is obviously a lot more noticeable, but it’s okay. I think the focus is over there.”
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