Sergio Perez, Racing Point, Bahrain International Circuit, 2019

Perez: Stroll a tougher team mate than Ocon on race pace

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In the round-up: Sergio Perez says his new team mate Lance Stroll is closer to his race pace than either of his previous two team mates.

What they say

Perez says Stroll “has speed, he has talent [and] works hard”, and compared him to his two previous team mates Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg:

In a way Esteban and Nico were quite similar approach. And they always seemed to struggle a lot with race pace.

But with Lance his race pace is I think from all the team mates he is the closest to mine in terms of race pace. In quali he can deliver as well.

He’s already, on Sundays, quite good. Which I was quite surprised because always going for a long run I seemed to find it a bit easy with my previous team mates but that is not the case now.

I think he has a good understanding for Sundays. Which is good, it’s what you need at the end of the day to score points, especially with this tight midfield.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

I suspect a lot of people share @Bernasaurus’s sentiment towards Williams at the moment:

I sincerely hope they survive this.
@Bernasaurus

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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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46 comments on “Perez: Stroll a tougher team mate than Ocon on race pace”

  1. Hemingway (@)
    29th March 2019, 0:05

    Perez looking to secure his seat for next season.

    1. He must be a remarkably nice guy, everybody in every team he has driven for can’t say enough about what a nice and talented person he is.

      1. F1oSaurus (@)
        29th March 2019, 7:36

        @hohum You forgot the /s. Although it’s that obvious I understand why you left it out

        1. @f1osaurus, if you have to flag it, it’s not good enough.

      2. Haha, yes … obviously.

        Also shows how everyone in motorsport has been groomed from day one to kiss the asses of those with the money influences.

    2. Yep, Perez knows how to play this game.

      Next he will be wearing “Stroll is the best” t-shirts.

      Although, I must add, that I had to eat my words after Stroll finished where he did. I did not follow his progress closely enough to work out if it was luck, but….the result certainly surprised me.

      While I am very much willing to see how he does, it is certainly a battle between that and hoping Perex destroys him this season. If only to see how that scenario plays out…..

      1. @mach1 It’s partly that he had a great start, as he tends to have had, and partly that with a bit of luck with his strategy, a solid car, good defensive driving and a hard to overtake on track, he didn’t slide back like he used to, I think.

      2. @mach1 He had a great start, but the key thing in him getting that result was Giovinazzi holding up Norris, Albon etc. Without that, he wouldn’t have finished in the points.

    3. That’s the first thing that came to my mind, not to mention taking a free shot at Ocon while he’s sitting on the sidelines.

      1. Or Stroll is actually better than what a lot of armchair experts want us to believe.

        I’m still on my Stroll challenge, and won’t comment until Barcelona.

    4. Perez is right, he is a lot closer with Stroll than with Ocon or Hulk, they both know very rich and supportive persons…

    5. Agreed 100%

    6. Lawrence behind a team lorry whispers loudly: “Hey, Checo, come here! Come here…no no no no no, don’t walk away, I’m fine, see? I won’t do you no harm, come here”

      Checo approaches Lawrence and mumbles: “Hi boss! Did I do anything wrong?”

      Lawrence calms him down: “No! You’ve been a very good boy…so far. Where are you going”

      Checo: “You know…(kicks a small rock)…the usual…(shyly kicks another)…talking to the press…”

      Lawrence sees the opportunity that he was waiting for, he strikes: “Oh, I see… listen listen… this is what we are going to do, you go there and tell them how good Lance is OK? Better, tell them they are better than your previous teammates, especially Hulkenberg and Ocon. ok!

      Checo, with his head down: “But boss, hdjkbfsfo nfsf … (Lawrence: Speak loud boy!)…. it will make me sound stupid boss!”

      Lawrence clearly frustrated: “Better sound stupid with a seat don’t you think?”

      Checo sees himself between a rock and a hard place: “Yes boss, ok…(Lawrence: WHAT!?)….OK boss, will do it.”

      5 mins later, Checo: “In a way Esteban and Nico were quite similar approach. And they always seemed to struggle a lot with race pace.

      But with Lance his race pace is I think from all the team mates he is the closest to mine in terms of race pace. In quali he can deliver as well.

      He’s already, on Sundays, quite good. Which I was quite surprised because always going for a long run I seemed to find it a bit easy with my previous team mates but that is not the case now.

      I think he has a good understanding for Sundays. Which is good, it’s what you need at the end of the day to score points, especially with this tight midfield.”

      1. Clicked the wrong link, there, @johnmilk. Here you go: https://www.writing.com/

        :@)

        1. do you think I should submit it there @shimks?

    7. BlackJackFan
      30th March 2019, 3:03

      This thread is the best laugh I’ve had this week… :-)

  2. Dr. Marko: in Barcelona … Gasly destroyed essential parts that we only had one of

    Not the favoured child, eh?

    Also, in that photo of the F2 championship drivers, why are some drivers the only ones kitted out in a particular style of overalls, instead of having a similarly attired teammate? Are there teams running single cars, or do each of a team’s drivers have separate sponsorship necessitating unique overalls?

    1. Are there teams running single cars, or do each of a team’s drivers have separate sponsorship necessitating unique overalls?

      The later, you see it quite often in lower formula’s. Especially when the driver is having to use their sponsorship to cover the entire budget for the season, some of the bigger teams will have a few sponsors the drivers will be forced to adopt. (like there is in the smaller F1 teams)

      1. *latter, not later

      2. Thank you for clarifying and explaining, Daniel, much appreciated.

      3. * lower formulas, not formula’s

        1. Actually “formulae”

      4. adding to that @phylyp it isn’t also unusual for a driver to belong to a junior program while his team-mate isn’t, that would also have an effect on livery and driver apparel.

        see, I know stuff

        1. see, I know stuff

          @johnmilk(picks jaw up off floor)

  3. *Perez: Stroll a tougher team mate than Ocon on moneys.

  4. Ocon deserved that Racing Point seat on merit, Perez only secured it with cold cash. Now the fading Checo gets beat by young Stroll in Australia and takes another opportunity to put Ocon in the wall again. Shameful.

    1. Yea that’s definitely an angle that has merit. He certainly don’t like Ocon. I would say it’s harsh to say Checo is fading. He’s had a lot of distractions like getting paid and getting married and I would say he’s kind of plateaued. He often talks like he’s frustrated. Concentration and aggression are not enough to get him to the next level – even to Kimi’s level and they will fight this season.

    2. Well Perez beat Ocon on points. Plus he had a big role in saving the team. So imho it’s not just the money.

      1. @anunaki True but calling in the debt so the team folds wasn’t exactly an honourable thing to do – especially when it is clear his motive was to save his own race seat as most suspect the deal was already done with RP/Stroll before pulling the plug on FI.

        1. For what I read about this he saved the paychecks of a lot of people

          But let’s agree Perez knows his way around politics

    3. Hmmm tell me more about how getting beaten is considered a merit…

  5. Merit? Really? Why would any team pick a driver that always give less championship points with no cash?

  6. Manage public expectations about relative performance to current team mate. – check.

    Manage nepotistic team boss relations – check.

    Take opportunity to put the boot into previous teammate with whom relations were bad – check.

    Looks like a win-win-win comment for Mr Perez.

    Except anybody in a second seat with Stroll Sr owning and Stroll Jr driving is on hiding to nothing career wise.

  7. Sneaky Checo! At first glance, he’s heaping praise on his oft-criticised team mate. At second sight, however, the facade begins to crumble.
    Stroll’s race pace: After a single race, Pérez sees in Stroll what he apparently never saw in three seasons with Hülkenberg or two seasons with Ocon, with both of them beating him quite regularly in the races (Hülkenberg finished ahead 23-22; Ocon finished ahead 9-5 in 2018 [ignoring his much less successful rookie season for the sake of the argument]). A race in which their respective pace virtually never played a role, as its outcome was almost entirely shaped by strategy (i.e. Pérez getting stuck behind Giovinazzi after his early pit stop, while Stroll was fortunate to start on harder C3 tyres, make a late pit stop and emerge ahead of the pack that Giovinazzi had held up).
    Stroll’s ability to ‘deliver in quali’: Stroll out in Q1, Pérez still going in Q3. Obvious sarcasm is obvious.

    Praise cranked up to 11, with the facts telling quite a different story: Pérez’ statement can be summed up as “Yes, but actually no”, while maintainig plausible deniability. And lowering the bar for himself, because if Stroll is that much better than Ocon and Hülkenberg, what a beast must Pérez be if he ends up beating him easily?
    That’s three messages for the price of one. Hats off to him!

  8. F1oSaurus (@)
    29th March 2019, 7:39

    Perez is always faster than anybody in his own delusional head.

    Like every time he was complaining about being “held up” by Ocon and then the inevitable answer would come on the radio “Yes, but he’s managing his tyres and so should YOU be”. Which then saw Perez drop back massively later, because he had wasted his tyres to get close to Ocon to begin with.

  9. Yasser (@yasser-rafiq)
    29th March 2019, 7:58

    What a sore loser!! Getting beaten by Stroll. Totally doesn’t deserve to be in the sport.

  10. I think I have worked with people like Perez.
    They buy their Foreman a bottle of whiskey at Christmas and the other workers never tell them anything important.

    I’m sure we can all agree with the Cotd. Fingers crossed that Williams survive these terrible times :(

  11. ”Certainly to a degree because of the fact that we never drove with the full package in Barcelona because Gasly destroyed essential parts that we only had one of.”
    – I see what you did there Dr. Marko, LOL.

    Re the COTD: Same here.

    Re Checo’s words: Too early to judge that based on a single race.

  12. It is like still having Alonso around…..

  13. Stroll is closer to checo? maybe he means that both him and stroll are slow and close to each other, while ocon and hulk were on the faster side!!
    I would really like to hear ococ’s thoughts on this xD

    On a serious note, I am sad that Perez had to stoop low like this. There is no way stroll is good, cuz he isnt. Plus, ocon was a better driver than perez last season. Plus, this was just 1 race and no experienced driver can honestly decide and draw comparison between 3 drivers based on such less data. All I can sadly deduce from this is Perez is sucking up to Stroll sr.

    I am happy that the ‘India’ element from this team is removed now. Cuz this is bs from Perez.

  14. Checo knows which side his bread is buttered. He’s a clever guy and he knows he can’t get a better seat, so why risk rocking the boat by slating Stroll and potentially losing his seat. The policy of saying nice things about him and beating him on track is a good one.

    At the end of the day, the position on Stroll is this: Bottas was quicker than Massa at Williams. Massa was faster than Stroll at Williams. So ultimately, Stroll has shown he is not as quick as someone who was not as quick as someone who is not as quick as a world champion (I think Bottas is amazing, but the last two seasons proved this). He’s young and has some talent, but he has a long way to go if he wants to challenge for the ultimate prize.

  15. Maybe Stroll just got in F1 to fast because of the Max hype and he’s getting better. And maybe the Williams was a dog of a car to drive. And he still managed to get a 1st start row qualy plus a podium finish.

    I’m not a Stroll fan, but I have a feeling he could be surprising us this year

    1. @anunaki, quite, F1 history has shown us that it is possible to have wealth and talent eg. Revson, Courage and others I will no doubt remember the second I hit “post comment”.

  16. i wonder why Stroll is the only driver that gets this kind of support from his team mate. It was the same with Massa.
    Sirotkin had his own bag of money to avoid doing it, at least.

  17. Either he’s trying to appease his new boss or he’s trying to wind up Ocon.

Comments are closed.