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?

 

[Mephistopheles]

And Bruce

 

[Il_leone]

Perez had big boots to fill at Mclaren in replacing Hamilton

There were doubts suggesting he got his drive because of potential money that he could bring over Hulkenberg and Di Resta who are better racers

I think the signs should have been there that his best races were usually when he was outside top 10 with extra tyre sets and he did not score in the last 6 races

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Magnussen has been earmarked as even better than Hamilton since around 2010 and Mclaren want to look for that driver with an X factor


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Only concern is they are basing their judgement on the simulator results which said he was faster than Perez. The team relies too much on excessive race pace data analysis rather than intuition . It was because Ron relied on race pace analysis that he did not pick Button before to replace Alonso

So they had better hope they got it right next year

 

[Viscount]

Up until this year Perez was still part of the Ferrari young driver academy and despite having tested in the simulator and on track for Ferrari they've never seemed inclined to giving a race seat and coupled with being dropped by McLaren suggests he's not quite good enough for the top teams.

 

[Hamberg]

Ferrari at the end of last season said he wasn't ready for the Ferrari seat this season, at that point they hadn't discounted him being ready in the future.

 

[Viscount]

If a future Ferrari seat was still a realistic prospect I don't think he would've joined a rival team in McLaren.

 

[RasputinLives]

Bianchi was always considered top dog rather than Perez. Make of that what you will.

Actually if you look at career stats Guttierrez should be in front of Perez when it comes to Mexican backing.

Pays to be mates with Mr Slim.

 

[Olivier]

If you read between the lines, Button thinks Checo is a better fit for McLaren that Magnussen could be ... or is he playing mind games already (ala Alonso)

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/button-says-teams-should-sign-intelligent-perez/

 

[Jen]

Mind games aren't necessary. Checo is gone and Magnussen is just a pup, why would Jenson challenge that?

 

[Mephistopheles]

I can't recall Button calling Perez "Intelligent" at Monaco and a few other races this year.

Take any news article and disregard about 95% of it as twisted out of context soundbites and treat the other 5% as copulative verbs then forget about it...

 

[Hamberg]

To be fair he's said he's surprised at McLaren's decision as he believes coming into a big team amongst major rule changes are a gamble and that Perez has really developed this year in other interviews so it's not that (if at all) out of context.

Button said he was also surprised at Hamilton's decision and that Kvyat has come in too early to F1.

Unlikely to be mind games rather than blunt answers to blunt questions.

 

[FB]

I seem to recall David Coulthard suggesting that Lewis Hamilton was coming in to F1 too early - just goes to show that drivers coming towards the end of their careers are often more worried about young talent taking their seat than being objective about an individuals capabilities.

Back to Perez, with a bucket load of Pesos I'me sure someone will find a seat for him next year.

 

[Plutus]

Why should David Coulthard have been worried about Lewis Hamilton taking his seat. At the time when Hamilton moved into the McLaren cockpit, Coulthard was at Red Bull lost at the back of the pack, it would have been an unlikely move from Hamilton to move there.

When the older generation of drivers make such judgements, they look back on themselves, what it would have been like for them had they joined F1 in the early stage of their racing career or in Buttons case what it was like. When judging from that standpoint think many will say they where too "immature" for F1 had they joined. Button has even stated this quite frequently in his interviews.

It is hard for F1 driver to really judge if someone else is ready, they often don't know each other very well and have to make a judgement based on first impressions.

 

[FB]

I perhaps didn't word that too well. It wasn't specifically Hamilton taking Coulthard's seat, more the typical reaction from older drivers is that anyone under 30 is "too young". I agree with your assessment Plutus that drivers may well try and put themselves into the position of the other based on their own experiences at that age and they are mostly wrong.

 

[FB]

Q. How do you get ahead in F1?
A. Leave McLaren

 

[Fenderman]

 

[teabagyokel]

Yes, an excellent result for Perez today; when we thought his intra-team goose was well and truly cooked he pulled out a fantastic performance for the Bronze Championship.

And he's now on 4 podiums in F1 to Nico H's none, moving level with Derek Warwick on the podiums-without-a-win table!

 

[Il_leone]

first podium where you could truly say it was on sheer pace rather than doing a different strategy by starting outside top 10 with fresher tyres

Problem with Perez he might have a few average races afterwards

 

[Galahad]

Outstanding drive yesterday. Great to see someone do something unexpected!

 

[RasputinLives]

It was a great drive. Well done Checo.

He had a great race at Bahrain last year too so he must like it.

Its also about the only race of the year Carlos Slim goes too!

 

[racecub]

Beat his lauded team mate today . Well done Checo! Great performance!