Sergio Perez 'amazed' by amount of criticism

The Mexican struggled for pace at Shanghai last weekend and was involved in three separate incidents, including an embarrassing crash in the pitlane after Friday practice.

With McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh saying that Perez could not be satisfied with how he performed, there is mounting pressure on the Mexican to ensure he does not suffer another nightmare in Bahrain this time out.

But Perez has downplayed any suggestion that he is feeling the heat, and says he is more surprised that the critics have spoken out considering he did so well in the first two races of the year.

"At McLaren everyone is watching your performance - in every single practice session, every single race," he said in Bahrain on Thursday.

"I find it quite amazing that after three weekends when I had two good weekends in terms of maximising the car potential, that after one bad weekend I received so many criticisms.

"But I think this is quite normal and usual for a team like McLaren."

Perez says that he is not fussed about such criticisms though, as he is sure that he will be able to do much better with McLaren in the future.

"If I am totally honest, I am not bothered about it," he said. "I am here to do my job and I will try my best this weekend and the next 16 weekends.

"I will keep trying my best on those 16 weekends, I will keep trying my very best which I have been doing up until now."

Perez also understands Whitmarsh's suggestion that he needed to toughen up, but reckons doing so was not so easy with the way strategy battles were playing out in Formula 1 now.

"It is difficult to judge when you can be aggressive and when not," he said.

"When you are in a different strategy and mainly looking after the tyres, the worst thing you can do is fight someone next to you who is on a different strategy - two or three seconds faster than you

"So you are not fighting that guy, you are fighting someone who is behind you. It is a difficult balance to judge."