Perez reveals key confidence loss with ‘pressure always higher’ at Red Bull

The Mexican won two of the first four races this year but his season - and with it any hope of challenging Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen for the title - has spectacularly derailed since. 

A crash during Q1 in Monaco resulted in a point-less weekend and marked the first of five consecutive weekends in which Perez failed to qualify inside the top-10. 

And Perez has now pinpointed that incident as being a key moment in his season, admitting the crash badly dented his confidence. 

"Certainly after Monaco, I lost some confidence because the way the crash happened, I lost a bit of confidence with the car and that set me back,” Perez said ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix. 

"I have my psychology and that is something I work on.

"Other than that, it is how the sport is. You have good moments and bad moments but when you are at Red Bull, the pressure is always higher in that regard.

"If you have a bad session, you have to answer questions about your future straight away.

"It is how it is but luckily enough, I am in a good place and I just have to focus on making sure I enjoy my job and enjoy the weekend.”

Verstappen capitalised on Perez’s torrid form to win seven races on the bounce and open up a 110-point lead in the championship. 

Perez finally broke his dreadful run without a Q3 appearance last time out in Hungary before producing a battling recovery drive to rise from ninth on the grid to complete the podium in third. 

Asked if he had experienced similar up and downs in his F1 career before, Perez replied: "I've had it before.

"It is just how it is. We operate on such small details that sometimes. if everything is not perfect, it can determine being on the podium or being out of the points.

"But it's always something people at home don't understand as much - how much detail goes into our races.

"That can make the difference between having a great race or a very poor race.

"It can happen to any driver in F1."