Sergio Perez – can he handle it?
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Few errors in recent circuits for Perez after McLaren seat announced – will he settle down or can’t he cut it?
He is talented, no doubt about that, but he needs to settle down a bit. The Mclaren ride seems to have gone to his head. He has speed, but seems to be lacking consistency and wheel-to-wheel racing ability. If that is due lack of ability or lack of experience remains to be seen.
Funnily enough how Sauber have a team with one driver that is over-confident because he’s got a drive with a top team next year, and the other driver with zero confidence because he doesn’t even have a drive for 2013 anymore. That has completely destroyed their chances of catching a mediocre Mercedes for 5th this season.
…except that Mercedes hasn’t scored a point since Monza. The gap has now gone down to 12 points – a very catchable gap for Sauber, IMO.
Well to put things into perspective, the whole grid has been giving weird results since the McLaren/Hamilton/Perez announcement.
Hamilton hasn’t had any podiums, and Mercedes haven’t scored points.
Perez hasn’t scored any points, and McLaren hasn’t had any podiums.In hindsight, we can conclude that all 4 got bad deals :P
I recon McLaren told Perez to use his remaining races for Sauber to find his limits to gain experience.
@necrodethmortem Although that may be a firmly tongue-in-cheek comment, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true.
I think he has gone into full “lets show the world why McLaren hired me” mode and this is hurting his results. He should seriously focus on helping Sauber at this point and keep out of trouble. The seat is already his and having a pointless second half of the season might hurt his confidence. That being said, he is only 22, the same age Lewis was when he started in McLaren. He still has a lot to learn and he still has time to improve. He is the youngest of the new drivers (with the exception of Pic who is 3 weeks younger). He is pure talent, still needs A LOT of improvement, no doubt, but as other users have pointed in the past, he could be a WDC contender in the incoming years. Mark my words.
Yes, at least he’s making his mistakes while he’s still driving a Sauber; and next year in his McLaren, he should be ahead of all the mayhem. Those are the straws the McLaren managers will all be clutching at.
I think the pressure of “I need to show the world that I AM a top driver now” has gotten to his results. The problem is that n a frontrunning, and probably expected championship contender, the pressure will increase a lot.
While of course the press machines, on Perez’s side and McLaren’s side, have said that they’re expecting Perez to win from the get-go, and to push for the title, IMO it’s not gonna happen. Maybe one or two wins, but not a “regular” win contender in the sense that we see today’s Vettels/Hamiltons/Alonsos are regularly in victory contention for maybe about 90% of the races.
In fact I think Perez will probably get knocked out of championship contention at least 2, and more probably 3, races before Button does (whenever Button gets knocked out – if ever)
I can’t seem to edit my last post. But to add on – the pressure at the front is a lot more.
In a top-midfield situation like the Sauber is (or the Williams) – then similarly to Kubica’s 2010, then it’s easy to look good. When you have bad results – it’s the car. When you have a podium, it’s you.
But when you’re in an expected frontrunner, it always is you – if the result isn’t coming, generally, we would blame the driver, unless we knew for certain that it was the car at fault.
I agree Perez’s racing has been somewhat hot-headed of late. Consider him a diamond in the rough, if you will – he has the pace, but what he needs to learn is to pace himself. Give him time, and tutelage from Button when he starts next year, and his present impetuousness ought to die down.
When you have bad results – it’s the car. When you have a podium, it’s you. But when you’re in an expected frontrunner, it always is you.
@raymondu999 – That’s a nice way of putting things into perspective.
hadn’t thought about McLaren insructing Perez to test his limits … and if they had, in hindsight Perez is probably wishing he hadn’t tried with Hamilton at Suzuka in an attempt to prove McL had made a wise choice of replacement driver. But, knowledge should now dictate that Perez does not try inside moves on a hairpin, and definately not outside moves, when trying to outmanouver the driver whose shoes he is about to step into! Ooops … But God Bless Perez, wonderful guy, always enjoy watching him race, but still not convinced this is a match made in heaven.
I have no doubt in my mind Perez will blow Jenson out of the water in McLaren!! The guy is good… he needs to chill a bit, that is all!
To be honest though, @catracho504 – we have no proof either way, do we? We have no way of performing direct comparison between Button and Perez.
There is nothing to prove or disprove (at this point) that Button will outperform Perez, or Perez will outperform Button.
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