Sergio Perez sheds light on “my most difficult moment in F1”

Sergio Perez insists this year has been his most difficult in Formula 1.

The Red Bull driver entered the season knowing Daniel Ricciardo was among the contenders to replace him.

A series of early podiums established Perez but he began to struggle, and was unable to tame the RB20 which it later emerged was declining in competitiveness.

Max Verstappen was initially able to overcome his car’s problems but, when the F1 champion also started struggling, Perez’s woes were contextualised.

"This year has been complicated,” he told DAZN.

“I think that this year it has been very hard to have a car with the limitations that I have had this season and not being able to express it, right?

“Because your teammate is winning, he is doing very well and you have an increasingly bigger barrier.

"It was hard all summer, I think it was one of my most difficult moments in F1.”

Perez was asked to erase one moment from his career that he’d rather forget, and he answered: "Forgetting about these last six months, it has been hard, honestly.

"Imagine when you have a car that is so limiting that you come to the weekend and you know you can't do anything with it, and the only thing you're thinking is that at any moment you could crash it because you don't have control of it."

There was huge speculation that Perez would lose his Red Bull race seat at the mid-way stage of this year.

Ultimately they opted to back him, and instead RB’s Ricciardo was replaced by Liam Lawson.

"In the end, the issue of the contract was something that people forget,” he said.

“I made a contract just this season, and many times people talk about more, but I  wasn't worried, I know where I stand."

Perez delivered an encouraging display in Azerbaijan, contending for a podium until an unfortunate last-lap crash with Carlos Sainz.

His lack of points is a major contributor to McLaren overtaking Red Bull at the top of the constructors’ championship.