Sergio Perez has acknowledged that his crash in qualifying last May in Monaco eroded his confidence, forcing him to work hard to regain his composure amid speculation about his future with Red Bull.
Perez's Q1 blunder in Monaco set in motion a downward spiral that undermined the Mexican's performances in the following races.
Although he was armed with the fastest car in the field, Perez was unable to qualify higher than P11 in the four races that followed his Monaco bust even though he did succeed in putting points on the board at each event.
The challenging period of underperformance inevitably thwarted his title chances as his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen sailed to consecutive wins.
In Hungary last weekend, Perez finally made the Q3 cut which he followed up with a strong drive from 9th to 3rd on race day, a result that he hopes will have marked a turnaround in his fortunes.
"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," he said at Spa on Thursday.
"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."
Asked if he had ever experienced a similar situation in the past during his career, Perez said: "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've had that before."
"And it's just how it is, you know, we operate on such small details that sometimes if everything isn’t perfect, it can mean being on the podium or being out of the points, you know," he added.
"But it's obviously something that people at home don't really understand, how much detail goes into our races, and that can make the difference between having a great race or having a very poor race.
"But it can happen to anyone, to any driver in Formula 1."
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