Sergio Perez has had a turbulent few weeks at Red Bull, following his string of disappointing qualifying performances, where he failed to make it to Q3 on five straight occasions. He made up for this slump with a strong recovery drive in Hungary, but 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg feels that the Mexican driver should get rid of social media, to avoid making a meme of himself.
Rosberg was part of one of F1’s most heated rivalries ever, with his former best friend and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton. During this time, the German driver was under a lot of pressure from the external world, for various reasons ranging from underperformances on track to rumors of huge rifts away from it. Rosberg resorted to isolating himself from these people, by getting rid of all his social media accounts then, as he revealed on the Sky Sports podcast.
Very happy with today’s comeback from P9 to P3! It feels good to be back on the podium. Fantastic job from the team with flawless pit stops and a new historic team record with 12 wins in a row! Hungry for more 🔥
¡Muy feliz con la remontada de hoy de P9 a P3! Se siente bien… pic.twitter.com/TEmDrxdKwM
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) July 23, 2023
According to Rosberg, Perez himself is under a lot of pressure right now. There are rumors of him losing his F1 seat, and with that comes a plethora of jokes on social media. For this, Rosberg wants the Red Bull driver to delete all his social media accounts.
Sergio Perez has to avoid looking at memes of himself
In today’s day and age, it doesn’t take time for incidents to blow up on social media, particularly in the world of sports. Perez’s poor form led to speculations about his departures and several memes about the same, that were all over the internet over the last few weeks. In the Sky F1 podcast, when host Matt Baker asked Rosberg to give Perez some advice while quoting a fan’s question, Rosberg brought the topic of social media up.
“First of all, I would recommend to Sergio, to really switch of all the media and everything,” he said. “Not look at social media. Because he is going to be seeing so many memes going against him. Comments going against him. Journalists giving questions that are going against him. So you really need to separate yourself from that.”
Rosberg then went on to cite his experience from the 2016 championship battle, which went right down to the wire. Back then, he too had to endure a lot of noise from people outside the paddock, which he had to overcome.
Nico Rosberg shares experience of his battle with Lewis Hamilton
The 2016 season saw one of the most heated F1 rivalries of all time peak. Former best friends Rosberg and Hamilton went toe to toe for the world title, which had to be decided on the very last race of the season. Rosberg was the heavy underdog in this battle, but still faced a lot of pressure when things weren’t going his way.
To deal with this, the 38-year-old decided to let go of his social media, email, newsletter and stay away from all kinds of online presence. Unfortunately, he added on his experience by saying that there is nothing anyone can do about the journalists asking questions, as Perez and all drivers have to appear in front of the media.
Rosberg admits that Perez will have a hard time, dealing with all this pressure. Nonetheless, to achieve success and build up on his Hungarian GP heroics, Perez has to switch off everything, and focus on giving his best.
