Rosberg’s key advice for Perez amid slump: ‘Switch off all the media…’

After making a strong start to F1 2023 - winning two of the opening four races - Perez hasn’t got close to challenging Max Verstappen to victories.

Since Monaco, Perez failed to make Q3 on five occasions, finishing just second on race day once in that period.

In the same stretch of races, teammate Verstappen has remained unbeaten, winning seven in a row.

Rosberg, who stole the 2016 title off Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, offered some key advice to the Mexican for the second half of the season.

“I would recommend Sergio switch off all the media and everything, not look at social media,” Rosberg said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.

“He’s going to be seeing so many memes going against him, comments going against him, journalists giving questions that are going against them, so you really need to separate yourself from that.”

Perez has been put under additional pressure following the return of Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri.

Ricciardo has openly admitted he’s eyeing up Perez’s seat for 2025.

“The only problem is that he still has to go to the racetrack and sit in front of 50 journalists,” he added.

“They’re going to ask him: ‘Hey Sergio, you’re looking like you’re having the biggest struggle in your career. Do you think you’re ever going to get out of this again?’

“That always hits you, because you have to listen. You can’t ignore [it], you have to answer the questions.

“The next question is going to be: ‘Hey Sergio, do you feel a threat from Daniel Ricciardo, do you feel that you might lose your seat?’ It just goes on and on like that, and it’s so hard because it just keeps on hitting you.

“That’s one of the hardest parts of the weekend for Sergio at the moment to deal with. So it’s about switching off, focusing.”