Sergio Perez, Force India 2018

Four drivers on McLaren’s shortlist for 2019

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown says the team is considering up to four different drivers for its second seat alongside Carlos Sainz Jnr in the 2019 F1 season.

What they say

Brown was asked whether Sergio Perez could return to the team he drove for five years ago.

We think Sergio’s a good race car driver. He’s raced here before. I think the driver market is fluid and you need to keep your options open. We really have a shortlist of about four drivers and we think Sergio’s an excellent driver and deserves to be on that list.

Ultimately sometimes you’re in a position where you can make the decision and other times some decisions are made for you. Maybe someone’s going to announce that’s on our list tomorrow morning. So you just need to be prepared, keep your options open for anyone. We would consider Perez as someone we’d consider to drive for us.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Has your opinion of Halo been changed by Charles Leclerc’s crash at Spa?

I did not like Halo when I first saw it, in fact, I hated it! However, after Leclerc’s crash I have been somewhat forced to change my opinion. It matters little if Halo altered any outcome from that crash, but it certainly matters that it erased the possibility of the wheel hitting Leclerc’s head. As Alonso stated that “it’s better we not find out”, I could not agree more.

When one remembers Henry Surtees’s death nine years ago, its hard to argue that had Halo been on his car, the lad would have left Brands Hatch that day alive. With Justin Wilson Halo may well have altered that outcome also, Dan Wheldon too, possibly.

In the wake of Robert Wicken’s crash, F1 is certainly going the right way compared to IndyCar in terms of head protection. Halo is not fool proof, but like HANS was twenty years ago, it will save lives which is what WE all want!
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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Four drivers on McLaren’s shortlist for 2019”

  1. I still think Kimi will end up at Mclaren.

    1. It’s a gut feeling, but i agree! It’s been a long time since McLaren have been without a world champ in their line up and I doubt they want to start now. Just finished Marc Preistley’s book the mechanic; he suggests kimi was a good fit for the team back in the day and that many at McLaren were sad to see him go.

      1. Indeed, I’m not sure if there’s a year of hole here and there but to me it looks like the last time there wasn’t a champion at mclaren was 2006, raikkonen wasn’t a champion yet, and if we want to go back until the mclaren driver line-up had drivers that weren’t champions at any time, we have to go back till at least the 80s, since before raikkonen there was hakkinen and before him there was senna and prost.

  2. I’m not sure the 4 drivers actually “want” to be on Mclaren’s shortlist given that they’re in such a mess.

    Being part of “we have no idea but I have a plan” probably has as much appeal as being on Williams shortlist.

    Pretty sure Mclaren has killed Vandoorne’s career – surely someone with as much talent as he had can’t suddenly lose it without there being a fair contribution from a bad car/team.

    1. Yeah, we’ve seen drivers struggle to adapt to the step up to F1 before, but this would be a new low.

      I think McLaren, in their quest to keep their superstar number one driver as content as possible, have almost fielded one car this year. With the spare parts being fed down to Vandoorne to play with.

      I would really like to see him get another crack of the whip. Far less deserving drivers have had far more chances.

  3. Why will Perez want to do that ?
    McLaren is the only team Perez hasn’t score a podium with and will not give better shot than properly financed Force India will currently.

    1. Indeed, agree.

  4. Since Sainz is confirmed, that would leave Vandoorne, Norris, Perez, and who? Raikkonen would be a good option if Ferrari chooses to give Leclerc the seat after all, but beyond that the pickings are a bit slim.

    If I were Zak Brown I’d let Vandoorne go, not because he’s a bad F1 driver, but to see if he can save his career. McLaren has given him a donkey and lawnmower in his 2 seasons there, and there’s no way a driver of his talent level should be stuck toiling around with a team that clearly doesn’t care about him anymore.

    I could see Sergio going if either A: Mercedes strikes a deal that gives Ocon the other Force India (Stroll GP) seat, or B: if he really doesn’t want to get stuck playing second fiddle to the Canadian billionaire baby. Both seem pretty feasible.

    That leaves Nando Norris. I get the feeling a loan deal to Toro Rosso was involved in the whole James Key to McLaren deal, and since STR are desperately going to need someone to fill Pierre Gasly’s seat, it makes too much sense for me.

    1. Where would Vandoorne go?

  5. So the mclaren list of 4. Perez, vandoorne, ocon and …norris?

    1. @socksolid Apparently, yes.

  6. Interesting short-list. I doubt about Perez, though. I think he’s just an outside shot. I expect the other three to be much more likely options than him.
    – I entirely agree with the COTD although I’ve never really had a problem with the look of the Halo. I got used to it straightaway already in 2016 when it was first used for trying it out during installation laps in numerous FP1 sessions.
    – Regarding Chris Medland’s tweet: It was actually Magnussen who start the whole thing by overtaking Alonso at Parabolica (which, for some reason, was never shown on the world feed) although I still agree with the Stewards’ decision on this particular little incident.
    – The image in Alan Baldwin’s tweet, though. A bit disrespectful in my view, but somewhat funny at the same time as well.

  7. I was under the impression that Perez already had a deal for next year with Force India before he pulled the trigger on the team to go into administration. So Zak Brown is just saying words out loud, really!

  8. Strange comments from Zak Brown saying maybe there could be an announcement ‘tomorrow morning’ (today). I wonder if he’s heard that Force India are/were planning to confirm their 2019 driver line up today. And if Stroll is in, clearly Perez or Ocon is out.

  9. That Hamilton board :D :D :D

  10. Independent Racefans.net still keeps doing positive opinion-making about halo.

  11. Perez: “I’ve got a contract and I keep performing and I keep delivering at my best. I try to score as many points as possible for the team, to try to get us further up on the grid. It doesn’t change from that perspective.”

    That he will still give all to the team for the rest of the season despite his new contract, sounds to me allegiances are about to be changed.

  12. Walter Olmstead
    2nd September 2018, 15:02

    Can Zak Brown be replaced? Maybe start with him.

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