Now as one of the top names in the sport was leaving their team I can completely understand why Mclaren would want to announce on the same day he was leaving that they had signed a replacement and for it to be someone who'd been making the headlines in F1. Image is everything with the sponsors and a 'taking it in our stride' attitude is the best way to handle it. However now a certain amount of time has passed and the dust has settled might we view that Mclaren should have waited a little bit and they may have backed the wrong horse. It certainly seems to me that a much stronger candidate than Perez has emerged in the second half of the season. I am of course talking about Nico Hulkenberg.
Nico Hulkenberg may have started the season a little slow but as the second half of the season has progressed he has suddenly come to the fore and whilst he's not been grabbing the headlines like Perez in the Sauber he's certainly been punching above his weight. There is no question that Force India is not as quick as it was last year and you could arguably say its the 8th quickest car on the grid. In reality pace wise its probably pretty level with the Merc, Sauber and Williams with the driver making the difference on who comes out on top - and in the last few races the difference has certainly been Hulkenberg. Whilst he's had a few dips in race Hulkenberg has pretty much been top ten since Valencia. He scored a 5th place in Valencia, a 4th at Spa and a 6th at Korea - lets not forget but for last lap car problems he'd have been 5th at Singapore as well. Top 6 for any driver not in a Red Bull, Ferrari, Mclaren or called Kimi is punching way above where they should be so a potential 4 times in the last 10 races really is showing some skill. Sergio Perez has scored 2 top six finishes in the last 9 with a very impressive 2nd place so you might argue he's up there with him but Perez falls down big time with consistancy. Perez has 6 points finishes out of 17 races this season whilst Hulkenberg has 9. When you think about how much pace that Sauber has had at times and how poor the Force India was at the start of the season thats a massive gap and as the season draws to a close Hulkenberg is scoring consistant mid top ten finishes whilst Perez is doing his best to destroy his rep by driving like a loon.
So lets look at the "upcoming" group now shal we? Grosjean is being declared unsafe, Maldonado either wins or crashes(usually crashes), Rosberg has gone to sleep, Kobi is being labelled as having a poor season and Di Resta is being put in the shade by his team-mate. That leaves Perez and Hulkenberg as the two viable candidates and when Mclaren made their decision Perez's headlining podiums had put him at the top of the pile but should they have looked deeper than that? Ok Nico's first season in in F1 didn't light any fires but he did score 22 points in a Cosworth powered car and there was always that pole in Brazil. But surely Mclaren should have looked further back than that. Perez doesn't have a bad junior history but its a bit like this GP season has been, moments of glory followed by slumps of dissapointment. He had 2 seasons in GP2 finishing 12th and 2nd in the championship and winining 5 races. He was 4th in British Formula 3 and the only championship he has ever won is the British Formula Class. Whilst he is 3 years younger his junior career can not match that of the Hulk. Hulkenber won Formula BMW ADAC at the first time of asking, He won A1 Grand Prix at the first time of asking, He won the Formula 3 Euro Series and he won GP2 in his first season with 5 wins. Basically Hulkenberg has won ther majority of the s entered by consistantly scoring points in all of them. He's also know for his methodical approabe honest he kind of has Mclaren written all over him. Maybe he had a little false start in his F1 career but I think we can see he has now begun to realise some of that potential, a far greater potential than Perez.
I'm not writing this article to knock Sergio Perez, I'm actually a fan and I hope he does well at Mclaren. I'm just inclined to think that he is currently in a purple patch and that Mclaren have been distracted by this and the media headlines into missing out on the real prize. Hulkenberg is now being courted by Ferrari for 2014 in case they don't get Vettel, whether he'll find success in that environment I don’t know but I think he’d have been rather suited to the Mclaren team.
What do you guys think? Reckon Mclaren should have waited for the dust to settle and thought harder about brining in their replacement? Think I’m right about Hulkenberg? Or reckon there is someone else out there who would have been better to swoop for?
Nico Hulkenberg may have started the season a little slow but as the second half of the season has progressed he has suddenly come to the fore and whilst he's not been grabbing the headlines like Perez in the Sauber he's certainly been punching above his weight. There is no question that Force India is not as quick as it was last year and you could arguably say its the 8th quickest car on the grid. In reality pace wise its probably pretty level with the Merc, Sauber and Williams with the driver making the difference on who comes out on top - and in the last few races the difference has certainly been Hulkenberg. Whilst he's had a few dips in race Hulkenberg has pretty much been top ten since Valencia. He scored a 5th place in Valencia, a 4th at Spa and a 6th at Korea - lets not forget but for last lap car problems he'd have been 5th at Singapore as well. Top 6 for any driver not in a Red Bull, Ferrari, Mclaren or called Kimi is punching way above where they should be so a potential 4 times in the last 10 races really is showing some skill. Sergio Perez has scored 2 top six finishes in the last 9 with a very impressive 2nd place so you might argue he's up there with him but Perez falls down big time with consistancy. Perez has 6 points finishes out of 17 races this season whilst Hulkenberg has 9. When you think about how much pace that Sauber has had at times and how poor the Force India was at the start of the season thats a massive gap and as the season draws to a close Hulkenberg is scoring consistant mid top ten finishes whilst Perez is doing his best to destroy his rep by driving like a loon.
So lets look at the "upcoming" group now shal we? Grosjean is being declared unsafe, Maldonado either wins or crashes(usually crashes), Rosberg has gone to sleep, Kobi is being labelled as having a poor season and Di Resta is being put in the shade by his team-mate. That leaves Perez and Hulkenberg as the two viable candidates and when Mclaren made their decision Perez's headlining podiums had put him at the top of the pile but should they have looked deeper than that? Ok Nico's first season in in F1 didn't light any fires but he did score 22 points in a Cosworth powered car and there was always that pole in Brazil. But surely Mclaren should have looked further back than that. Perez doesn't have a bad junior history but its a bit like this GP season has been, moments of glory followed by slumps of dissapointment. He had 2 seasons in GP2 finishing 12th and 2nd in the championship and winining 5 races. He was 4th in British Formula 3 and the only championship he has ever won is the British Formula Class. Whilst he is 3 years younger his junior career can not match that of the Hulk. Hulkenber won Formula BMW ADAC at the first time of asking, He won A1 Grand Prix at the first time of asking, He won the Formula 3 Euro Series and he won GP2 in his first season with 5 wins. Basically Hulkenberg has won ther majority of the s entered by consistantly scoring points in all of them. He's also know for his methodical approabe honest he kind of has Mclaren written all over him. Maybe he had a little false start in his F1 career but I think we can see he has now begun to realise some of that potential, a far greater potential than Perez.
I'm not writing this article to knock Sergio Perez, I'm actually a fan and I hope he does well at Mclaren. I'm just inclined to think that he is currently in a purple patch and that Mclaren have been distracted by this and the media headlines into missing out on the real prize. Hulkenberg is now being courted by Ferrari for 2014 in case they don't get Vettel, whether he'll find success in that environment I don’t know but I think he’d have been rather suited to the Mclaren team.
What do you guys think? Reckon Mclaren should have waited for the dust to settle and thought harder about brining in their replacement? Think I’m right about Hulkenberg? Or reckon there is someone else out there who would have been better to swoop for?
