Sergio Perez has suggested that changes made to Red Bull’s RB19 for the Spanish GP contributed to his downturn in form.
The Mexican had a strong start to the 2023 season, winning two of four races – however, they would be his only wins of the year (to date).
Perez went from contending with his Dutch teammate for the world championship to being 125 points behind him come the summer break.
Perez previously revealed that his crash at qualifying in the Monaco Grand Prix in May caused a “nosedive” in confidence.
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He finished 16th in that race and things only deteriorated for the Mexican from here.
This fateful day at the Circuit de Monaco marked the first of five consecutive weekends that he failed to qualify in the top ten.
Perez’s poor performances in qualifying have been his Achilles heel this season.
Speaking ahead of the Belgian GP, Perez commented: “Certainly after Monaco, I lost some confidence because of the way the crash happened.
“I lost a bit of confidence with the car and that set me back.
“I have my psychology and that is something I work on.”
However, Perez revealed it was not only the psychological impact of the Monaco crash that has been hampering him.
He says that design changes made to the RB19 for the Spanish Grand Prix unsettled him.
Speaking to media sources about the first half of this season, he stated: “It has changed a bit.
“I think when we went to Barcelona, I found a bit of a different balance compared to what I wanted.
“But I think now we’ve come on top of that, we’ve made some good progress.
“We’ve had some good race pace in the last few races but qualifying hasn’t been going our way.
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“So I think it’s just how it is; through the year sometimes you’ll have a bit of bad races, but it’s important where we finish in Abu Dhabi.
“For the team, it has been a great first half of the year. It will be great to keep it the same for that second half of the year.
“In the second half of the year, I just want to bring my form back and be able to score as many points as possible in the coming races.”