Perez: Rumor noise completely shut down from my side

Despite having a contract extension with the team, Perez's future at Red Bull is far from secure, as the team seems to be evaluating his performance on race-to-race basis with team boss Christian Horner and team consultant Helmut Marko not denying the fact that they are studying their options regarding the Mexican, whose future should be decided after the final race before the Formula 1 summer break - the Belgian GP.

Perez started the Hungarian GP weekend in decent form, but then binned his RB20 in Q1 in qualifying which meant he started the race in 16th place and raced to an eventual seventh after a strong race performance.

Marko insisted that doesn't change anything despite acknowledging Perez's good performance and said: "We are sticking to our approach, on Monday after Spa I will fly to England and discuss the procedure with [Christian] Horner."

"That was probably Sergio's strongest race since China, I would say," Horner told the media in Budapest, including GrandPrix247.

"So he should take some confidence out of today's [Sunday's] race. If he had qualified more in position yesterday [Saturday], you could see he would have been in a much more competitive position," he added.

Asked about the rumors surrounding his future at Red Bull, Perez said: "It will go off. The noise has to be completely shut down from my side and I am fully focused on myself, on maximizing my own performance and to work with the team.

"At the end of the day, the only thing that matters to me are the people working with me, so I just have to give my very best to them because they deserve it.

"The most positive is that the pace is there, not like a few weekends ago where we were lacking it. That is the most positive.

" I just have to take the positives," he went on. "We had a very strong Friday, we had a strong race in terms of pace - the pace is there, so that is a positive. The rest, I am sure it will take care of itself. It is a matter of time. The most important is that the pace is there and I really hope that for Belgium, I can be back fighting for the podium."

As to his error in qualifying, the under-pressure Red Bull driver explained: "We were just pushing out there at the wrong time, but it could have happened to anyone.

"The track just got wetter in Turn 8, I was going through there, some other drivers had a similar issue but to a lesser extent. I think I take it as it is, I will learn from those errors, but they can happen to anyone.

"So head down and like I said, the most important is the pace is there," he reiterated.

Asked to sum up his weekend in Hungary, Perez said: "Positive in regards to the pace, very negative with my mistake from yesterday [Saturday]. But head down, the season is long and the most important is the pace is there."

Red Bull are under pressure in the 2024 Constructors' Championship, as McLaren are now second and just 51 points behind with 11 races remaining this season. They need Perez to start delivering points, especially as Max Verstappen has enough on his hands trying to defend his Title in an RB20 that is no longer the best car on the grid.