After winning 2 out of the first 4 races, Sergio Perez was a self-proclaimed Championship contender alongside his teammate, Max Verstappen. But after the Azerbaijan GP, the King of Streets has struggled to even get to the podium. Maybe that self-imposed pressure of being P1 got the better of him. But RB taskmaster Helmut Marko believes that Perez can only improve if he gets rid of his dream of being a World Champion.

For Red Bull, securing both championships this year looks like a sealed job. Max Verstappen keeps extending his lead and Perez is doing a decent job of holding P2 in the WDC. But the Mexican driver’s efforts aren’t showing much improvement. And as time goes on, the pressure keeps rising. Even the entire Sprint proceedings on Saturday resulted in nothing for him.

Helmut Marko believes that there is only one solution to his problems. And that is to give up the dream of winning the Drivers’ Championship. In an exclusive interview with Motorsport-Total.com, Marko said, “He has now woken up from his world championship dream. Maybe that will help him to focus again on delivering the best possible performance.” [translated via Google]

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What Marko is talking about is still the bigger picture. But the woes that plagued him on Saturday were a result of a collision with his Mercedes rival. And he’s given a fitting reply in the media.

Sergio Perez Blames Lewis Hamilton For Ruining His Sprint Race

In Lap 6 of the Sprint race at Spa, Lewis Hamilton tried to overtake Sergio Perez at Stavelot Corner, for P4. But because the track was still wet, he suffered a bit of understeer and made contact with the right side of Perez’s RB19. As a result, the sidepods got damaged and Perez had to retire his car. And in the post-race interview, he took a jibe at the Briton for his “hurry”.

“It was massive damage from the contact from Lewis,” said Perez, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “He just took the whole right-hand side of the car. He damaged the floor and the sidepod, so that was game over. We lost too much grip with it. I think he was in a bit of a hurry.”

The 33-year-old has no choice but to leave the past behind. For him, the main spectacle at the Belgian GP should be a relatively better race considering that he starts P2. How he proceeds with that front-row advantage will dictate the rest of the race proceedings.

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