Perez doesn't want any praise from Horner: 'Nobody has to tell me'

Perez admits it is tough to perform while the whole world is watching to make sure you don't crash your car into the wall. "It is not easy," the Mexican said at Spa on Thursday. "It's obviously tough because you know you are in the spotlight of the sport and it happened again. But more than the emotions, it's really how you get out of them and how you don't let them turn you down. And if you see my race on Sunday, there's always an opportunity. That's the beauty of this sport. You are as good as your last race."

Horner satisfied yet critical after Hungary

Perez is confident that his season will not end after Belgium but with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In that case, he will have to convince team boss Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko that he belongs in the car next to Verstappen. Both were satisfied with Perez's performance during the race after the Hungarian Grand Prix, but critical of his crash during qualifying.

"I don't need anyone to tell me if it's a good race or a bad race. I'm experienced enough to know what sort of performance I put in. The main focus for me is really to get the season back on track, to get the performances back on track. It's really simple from my point of view. I'm keeping things very, very simple and just focusing on showing my whole potential because the good thing that I feel is that the potential is there now. We know what to do and we've got a good direction, so hopefully we can build from that," Perez said.

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy