Did McLaren Jump the Gun with Pérez?

[Chris Stevens]

Who says Hulkenberg had a weak start to the year. Leading the race at one point in China? If you ask me, Hulkenberg is the one I'd have put in the McLaren, or maybe di Resta. Perez only had those shining moments when he was further down the field and had a lot of tyres to play with

 

[Bill Boddy]

....
Does he deserve a 2nd season overall depends on the level of expectancy money the team was hoping for

 

[Il_leone]

Bill Boddy

I think people should really look at how commited Telmex are going to be given supposedly they were going to stay with Sauber for this season and decided to shift their focus to Mclaren and now deciding so it appears not to be as committed in becoming the team sponsor

It does appear to come at a cost to the team - picking an inferior driver it has to be said if evidence at both Sauber with Gutierrez and Mclaren with Perez is anything to go by

 

[Mephistopheles]

Did McLaren jump the gun? I'm not sure but Perez very nearly jumped that wall at spoon....

 

[Greenlantern101]

The answer is Yes isnt it. why its taken 245 posts to work that out I have no idea.
Your welcome.

 

[Hamberg]

Perez put in a much better race today than Button, the Nico Rosberg magnet stuck to his car was his downfall. So no.

 

[The Artist.....]

Perez was his own downfall today... The turned in to Rosberg's car, and punctured his own tyre....

It would have been very interesting to see what would have happened had Perez not committed hari-kiri during the race, as I suspect button would have had him on the last lap!

 

[RasputinLives]

.....and just to top it off today Sergio was only the 2nd best Mexican in the Japanese Grand Prix.

ouch.

 

[Jen]

Don't like the guy - still an adolescent and in the same position Vettel and Grosjean were. Both Grosjean and Vettel took a couple of years to master it - I'm not convinced that Perez ever will.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Perez was on a two stopper and Button on a three so I suspect Button would have beaten Perez even without the puncture...

 

[Hamberg]

Well Perez put in a superb performance yesterday equalling McLaren's best position, driving brilliantly and finishing way ahead of his team mate. It took him a while but he showed yesterday he can be as good/better so it would be a shame if he isn't given the opportunity to develop and do this again.

 

[Jen]

I always wonder why it takes so long to prove a point. Is Perez on a 'sticky wicket' and only now realising what he is there for or has it taken him this long to master the car - either way, I don't see him as a 'true racer'.

 

[Hamberg]

I think it's a bit of both but I used to love watching him in GP2, racer he most definitely was. What he needs to do now, the same as Grosjean and Maldonado is shake the gung-ho element that comes from the feeder series. McLaren are a unique team and the guy seems to have been given mixed messages.
It's still only his first season in a top team. Look at the amount of scrapes Vettel used to get into.

 

[Jen]

Indeed and I wasn't sure Vettel would ever scrub up!

 

[RasputinLives]

Perez beat his teammate by a long way because his teammate got hit off the startline. Lets not get carried away here. Perez did everything right at the weekend but the result was down to the improved Mclaren. Button would have not been too far behind if he hadn't been swiped by Alonso.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Perez beat his teammate by a long way because his teammate got hit off the startline. Lets not get carried away here. Perez did everything right at the weekend but the result was down to the improved Mclaren. Button would have not been too far behind if he hadn't been swiped by Alonso.

That suits what I saw.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I hate it when drivers start driving better when contract is under threat they are in the team to try their best at all times not just when it suits, Massa is doing the same thing it's called driving for your career and if I were a team boss I wouldn't hire a driver on that basis alone.

Or it could be because the only other time Perez has had a decent result was when the tyres were dodgy just like on Sunday...

 

[The Pits]

Alonso took two bites at the corner. He would have had enough room if he had not. Or if he had backed off, after all it was his front wheel on JB's rear.

Racing incident most likely, however, I am sure that this will continue to be a stick to beat whichever driver requires a beating at the time.

 

[Fenderman]

I wonder if he actually did drive "better"? Alonso having a very poor result and Webber's DNF ensured two places freed up for him and Hamilton's and Raikkonen's woes helped out to give him another two spots. Perez drove carefully enough to make pretty long runs on his stints and any overtaking was fairly straight forwward thanks to the dreaded DRS. 5th in a race like Sunday's is creditable but IMHO nothing at all special. So far he's looking like someone who will develop into a decent F1 driver but IMHO he's got a way to go yet.

 

[RasputinLives]

Guys my post was meant for the 'did mclaren jump the gun on perez' thread in response to Hamberg saying Perez beat his team mate by a long way. Sorry about the confusion.

Alonso did hit Button but he was avoiding Ricciardo when he did.