Sergio Perez says any pressure on him to perform at Red Bull is coming from himself, rather than anyone within the team.
Following the Spanish Grand Prix Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the team “desperately need” Perez to join the fight for the top three places with team mate Max Verstappen and the Mercedes drivers.But Perez insisted “all the pressure is coming from myself” at the team. “I really want to to deliver to the maximum potential to where the team is operating at.
“The team hasn’t put me [under] any pressure. I know what kind of job I have to do. So they don’t have to tell me what to do.”
Perez has scored a podium in Monaco previously when driving for Force India in 2016. He said achieving the same for Red Bull this weekend would be important to him.
“It would mean a lot because it would be my first podium with with Red Bull,” he said. “So I’m looking forward to it. Hopefully we are able to put a great race together and finally get into into those positions and start to reduce the gap to the leaders.”
Perez suffered shoulder pain during qualifying at the Spanish Grand Prix and spun on his way to eighth on the grid. He said today he had put that behind him and otherwise felt he has progressed well over the season so far.
“There is plenty of improvements to come and I think I’ve got a lot of room to improve. Every weekend I’m definitely learning more about the car.
“I think in Spain obviously [it] was a one-off on Saturday. So the first three races, I think we’ve been making good progress. And in Spain I just forgot that Saturday and move on.”
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Dave
19th May 2021, 19:30
And the curse is there too…
Qeki (@qeki)
19th May 2021, 19:54
This Perez/Red Bull story is slighlty starting to follow the Perez/Mclaren storyline but there are still many races left.
Joe
19th May 2021, 21:05
When Perez drove for McLaren he actually did a great job the second half of the season, comparing his performance with his teammate J Button. So if it was the same storyline, you would expect Perez beating Max on every Saturday and many Sundays.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
19th May 2021, 22:03
Perez must be a bull fighter then.
Le Jimster (@lejimster82)
19th May 2021, 22:07
Pressure can be a good motivator if thats what he feels he needs. But I do hope he can relax sooner than later. He was so chilled out with his situation at the end of last year and I think it actually helped his performances.
Todfod (@todfod)
20th May 2021, 8:40
It’s good Perez feels the pressure himself, because Red Bull doesn’t need to pressure him much.. they’ll just wait for a while and then dump him once a better option becomes available.
I don’t think Perez is the kind of driver who could perform at a top team at the same level he could perform at a midfield team. I think the best Perez can do is to reach Bottas’ level at Red Bull and stay there.