Current Sergio Pérez

Sergio Perez Mendoza also known as 'Checo'. 21 years of age and 12 Grand Prix under his belt. Already has a contract for Sauber for next year, is part of the Ferrari driving acadamy, current favourite to replace Massa but what he didn't have was his own thread on Clip the Apex so I thought I'd sort him one out.

Won British Formula 3 at 18. Finished 12 in GP2 at 19. Finished runner-up in GP2 at 20. Made his GP debut at 21 and finished in the points only to be DQ'd later due to both Saubers breaking car regs. Had a big accident at Monoco and even chose to pull out of the Candian GP after realising he wasn't back to 100%. Has had 2 points finishes so far this season with his highest being a 7th place at Silverstone. Has been quite highly placed at both Spa and Monza in last couple of weeks but due to a tangle and a mechnical faiure didn't capitalise on it.

Has been beating his Team-mate Kobyashi reg in qualifying but has had difficulty translating that to the races. Sometimes you wonder if Perez suffers from Sauber tendency to try and make him do something different on the tyre strategy and whether he'd much rather just go for it and race with the pack. Having said that he has proved he has a head for strategy which could stand him in goodstead for the future.

Already impressed enough to get a second year with Sauber and is currently dueling with Paul Di Resta for the 'Rookie of the Year' award. What do you guys think of him? Star of the future or constant midfield runner?
 
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Galahad said:
I agree, but did he spoil it all on the final lap?
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Not as badly as Maldonado did, that's for sure ;)

I haven't seen how the Rosberg incident happened, except from Rosberg's onboard, can anyone point to any footage of that?
 
The footage from Rosberg's onboard camera seems to suggest they touched on the back straight, when Nico was well ahead (the rear puncture would support that). But it would be good to see a better view of it before making a final judgement.
 
Yep, there was definitely contact between the two on the run into Turn 11. Perez squeezed Rosberg towards the wall and Nico incurred more damage than just a puncture. He went ahead of Sergio, but then took the escape road before the corner as the steering input was messed up. I have the incident but I'm not at home to post it now.

There might have been contact under breaking into turn 9 too.
 
KekeTheKing said:
Yep, there was definitely contact between the two on the run into Turn 11. Perez squeezed Rosberg towards the wall and Nico incurred more damage than just a puncture. He went ahead of Sergio, but then took the escape road before the corner as the steering input was messed up. I have the incident but I'm not at home to post it now.

There might have been contact under breaking into turn 9 too.
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Where were Kobayashi & Raikkonen while all this was going on? Were they right on the back of Rosberg trying to follow him past Perez or back a little?
 
RasputinLives said:
Although I realise he was losing time badly on tyres that were completely gone and was pretty much a roadblock for the cars behind can I just give a big round of applause to young Perez for showing us that even in the age of DRS the art of defensive driving is not dead.

Having watched the race live and on highlights I was taken with the brilliant way he defended his position. There was no blocking, or weaving or moving around he just placed his car perfectly at each corner in order to minimize the space and time the opponent behind him had to have a run at him. It was all perfectly fair but made the guy behind him actually have to work to take the position. If his car had only been half a second slower a lap than those chasing him rather than 2 seconds a lap slower I believe he'd have frustrated the majority of them for longer than he did.

nice one chap :thumbsup:
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Not taking anything away from him, but Melbourne is a track that's very hard to overtake, both Saubers where like roadblocks. Plus Maldonado who was always 5-6 tenths behind Alonso for about 20 laps couldn't get past him.

But yeah he drove really well nevertheless :)
 
Slyboogy said:
Not taking anything away from him, but Melbourne is a track that's very hard to overtake, both Saubers where like roadblocks. Plus Maldonado who was always 5-6 tenths behind Alonso for about 20 laps couldn't get past him.

But yeah he drove really well nevertheless :)
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It wasn't the length of time it took them to get past I was commenting on it was where he placed his car in the corners in order to stop the guys behind him being able to have a run on him. It made them have to brake too early or get completley wide and left them with a lot of work to do to go round him. Last time I saw it done so well was Vettel in China when Hamilton was chasing him.
 
KekeTheKing said:
Having had a few more looks, it probably was just a puncture. Really unfortunate for Nico who should have had P6.
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Now you've confused me :)

Are you saying there was no contact? How did Perez lose two places then? :s
 
There was almost surely contact between Perez' front wing and Rosberg's left rear tire. The only view we have is from Nico's onboard and he was well ahead of Sergio at the time, so it's not entirely clear what happened. The video will be up here soon.

 
Well He left him enough room coming through but was he in the way when Rosberg took the corner? Still not clear to me!
 
KekeTheKing said:
There was almost surely contact between Perez' front wing and Rosberg's left rear tire. The only view we have is from Nico's onboard and he was well ahead of Sergio at the time, so it's not entirely clear what happened. The video will be up here soon.

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http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/03/20/nico-rosberg-i-also-thought-he-was-crazy/

And then it’s just a very unnecessary thing that we touched on the straight, so Sergio touched my rear wheel and I got a puncture.

Rosberg was surprised when told that Perez had blamed him.

“He complained about me? So maybe it’s nobody’s fault, because I also thought he was crazy! Maybe it’s just a racing incident, and we have to see on the video. It’s a very unfortunate incident.”
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If you watch between 0:12 and 0:13 just as Rosberg gets past, he makes a significant move across the white line to the middle of the track. I'm not sure where Rosberg thought Sergio was going to be at that point in time or whether that was the normal racing line?
 
I must admit I had a good rant at the TV during the BBC evening news on Sunday where, during a report on the GP, the news reader practically accused Perez of backing off and not challenging Alonso for the lead due to a) Sauber having Ferrari engines and b) Perez being part of the Ferrari's young driver programme. I thought it was a completely unjust and unfounded statement and coupled with that, the report totally failed to mention that Perez lost most of his time after pushing too hard and almost binning it. A mistake that cost him 4 seconds and any hope of catching and passing Alonso. I've got to wonder why on earth a BBC news report would be so at odds with the facts when not a single F1 pundit I can think of has even claimed anything like foul play. Yet another reason to be very dissapointed with the BBC.
 
Martin Brundles view of the radio message.
http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/22058/7627929/A-race-to-be-proud-of
Then came the radio call from the Sauber pit wall to remind Perez how important 18 points were to the team. Of that there can be no doubt. In long seasons usually dominated by Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari, for a team embroiled in the brutal midfield battle along with Force India, Lotus, Toro Rosso and Williams, a single haul of points like that are usually season defining and financially hugely rewarding.
Was that message meaning 'don't risk hitting Alonso when you try to pass him' or 'back off'? In any event Perez celebrated the 'good news' by dipping a wheel onto the outside kerb of Turn 13 and was lucky that there is an acre of tarmac run off available there. I had several Tweets asking 'was that on purpose' but if you are yielding it's best done running wide in a slow corner, or better still having untimely tyre, brake, or temperature issues, not clouting a kerb at 150 mph.
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Although I made some comments in jest on Sunday, I believe Sergio was giving it his all.

However, I also believe that regardless of the radio transmission's intent, it would not have had a positive impact on Perez' prospects of winning the Grand Prix. When your team lets you know that P2 will be just fine, it's easy to understand why Checo had a momentary lapse in concentration.
 
Here's one for his album.

perez-malaysia-2012.jpg
 

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