Sauber driver Sergio Perez has admitted that he was 'thrown off' by his huge accident during qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix, which forced him to miss two races in the middle of his rookie Formula One season for the Swiss team.
Perez crashed heavily at the Nouvelle Chicane during the qualifying session for the Monaco race, suffering a concussion as a result of the crash.
The Mexican missed the Monaco race as a result of the crash, and although he returned for the Canadian GP weekend, he sat out that race as well after complaining of dizziness during first practice.
And Perez has admitted this week that he felt his rookie season had been disrupted badly by his accident, even though he now feels fully recovered.
"The accident threw me back quite a lot," he told the German-based spox.com website in an interview with them this week.
He explained: "I lost my momentum [after the crash] and so it took me a long time to get back my normal level of performance."
Perez has shown promising signs throughout 2011, but trails well behind team mate Kamui Kobayashi, having scored just 8 points to the Japanese driver's total of 27.
But he added that without the impact of the crash: "I definitely would have more [points] compared to [Kobayashi]."
And despite the fact that his first year in Formula One has been affected by his accident, Perez said that he was never worried about the future of his career.
"I was not worried [for my career], except that for a couple of races I had to recover," he said, "Sauber is a really good team for a rookie. The support I have is great."
Meanwhile, Perez will test a Ferrari F1 car later on in 2011, after the Italian squad confirmed the 'head-to-head' test with their reserve driver Jules Bianchi in September.
But the Sauber man insisted that he was not reading too much into the Ferrari opportunity just yet.
"Well, first of all I have to prove that I can do my job well," he mused regarding his future.
"Of course I want to have a lot of success in Formula One and be world champion, but how and when I will move in that direction, at the moment I have no idea."
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