Sergio Perez’s woes in the 2024 F1 season continued at the Canadian Grand Prix, where he failed to make it out of Q1 and later retired from the race. Helmut Marko believes the issue isn’t the car, but rather a psychological challenge for Perez.
Despite a strong start to the season with three runner-up finishes in the opening four races, Sergio Perez’s performance has dipped significantly in the last five Grands Prix, managing just one top-three finish.
The more pressing concern, however, has been his qualifying performance. Perez has not featured in the pole position shoot-out for three consecutive sessions. In both Monaco and Montreal, he didn’t make it past Q1, finishing P16 in both.
Perez, who recently signed a two-year extension with Red Bull, labeled his latest qualifying effort as a ‘total disaster,’ attributing it to issues with the rear axle of his RB20. ‘The main thing was really to switch on the rear,’ he explained. ‘Basically, I just had no grip, I was sliding too much around it and that meant that our qualifying was a total disaster.’
The race in Montreal didn’t go any better for him. Perez spun off on Lap 53, damaging his rear wing, and had to retire after limping back to the pits. His troubles were compounded with a three-place grid penalty for the following race in Spain due to continuing with a ‘significantly damaged car’ that lost several carbon fiber parts.
Comparatively, Max Verstappen had an outstanding performance, qualifying P2 and winning the race, marking his sixth win of the season. This contrast led Marko to insist that the issue isn’t the car but a mental block for Perez. ‘It’s not the car, you can see that with Max. I think it’s more psychological,’ Marko said. ‘When the conditions change, he finds it much more difficult. But the fact that it’s already the third time is painful.’
Perez admitted his mistake after the DNF, saying, ‘I did a mistake going into Turn 6, I just touched the wet patch and once you do that it’s really game over, and unfortunately that’s what happened. Very tough weekend, but I think there is a long season ahead and we will be back to our form that we had earlier.’
Last season, Perez began working with a psychologist after a crash in Monaco led to a significant dip in qualifying performance. ‘I think certainly after Monaco I lost some confidence,’ he told media. ‘Because the way that my crash happened I did lose a bit of confidence with the car and that put me back. I have my psychologist and that’s something that I work on.’
Despite bouncing back to finish P2 last season, Perez currently sits fifth in the standings with 107 points, trailing Verstappen by 87 points as the Dutchman chases his fourth consecutive World title.
Sergio Perez faces a challenging road ahead to regain his form and confidence as the F1 season progresses. With psychological factors at play, it remains to be seen how he and his team will address these issues moving forward.
Source: Planetf1
