Helmut Marko claims Sergio Perez’s struggles are “psychological” after 'total disaster’

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko says Sergio Perez’s recent F1 struggles are not car-related but “more psychological”.

Perez was knocked out in the first part of qualifying for the second consecutive race and could only manage a time good enough for 16th on the grid at the Canadian Grand Prix.

It comes after he was also eliminated in Q1 in Monaco at the previous round.

The Mexican, who has been re-signed by Red Bull for a further two seasons, has not featured inside the top-10 in qualifying since the Miami Grand Prix three races ago.

Perez had started all of the first six races from inside the top six prior to his recent downturn in results.

His teammate Max Verstappen qualified second, having been pipped to pole position by Mercedes’ George Russell after the pair set identical lap times.

"It's not the car, you can see that with Max. I think it's more psychological," Marko told ServusTV.

"It was close, and when the conditions change, he finds it much more difficult. But the fact that it's already the third time [not in Q3] is painful.”

Perez had looked set to sneak into Q2 but was ultimately dumped out of qualifying when Alex Albon found improvement in his Williams right at the end of Q1.

Perez admitted he simply could not get his tyres to work and labelled his qualifying as a “total disaster”.

“Mainly the issue was the rear end, the rear axle,” Perez told F1TV. “It felt a little bit worse.”

“I think it was a very strange sensation for a lot of cars out there. For us, I just couldn’t get the tyre switched on. It was taking a while to really switch on the tyre.

“It was a total disaster. I think when we went at the end, I just couldn’t get a proper lap in.”