Goodbye Perez?

[Henry Fiddleton]

JB should be well above Perez, which he is. JB has experiance, a WDC and multi year deal on the cards.

I am no Perez fan, Mcl should got the Hulk instead, however, this season Perez has done what was expected from a fairly young up coming driver.

He was never the real deal at Sauber, and is the same this year.

So why did they employ him in the first place! (I know if was money based) but Whitmarsh said it was not.

[CraigyMc]

m0rris said:

JB is doing well enough, he is very marketable in the UK (see the Santander ads), he is very popular in Japan (which is great for Honda's renewed involvement) and has plenty of experience in F1 cars through the ages. I'd definitely keep him over Perez, but he is getting old and surely won't be on the grid much longer.

I'd agree with this.

Also - if you're developing what's essentially a totally new formula (2014+), you want someone with a million years of F1 experience.

JB has more experience than anyone else on the grid this season: don't forget he drove an F1 car first at 19 years old in 1999 (McLaren and Prost tests) and was competing by 2000 (Williams BMW). If you're trying to set a new platform up from scratch, that experience is not a bad thing to have access to. I bet he's seen every sort of evil handling characteristic possible lots of times over.

I sort of expect him to do two seasons with McLaren-Honda (2015 and 2016), then shuffle off and do something else. He'd be 36 by then, so still not ancient.

[Podie]

Henry Fiddleton said:

So why did they employ him in the first place! (I know if was money based) but Whitmarsh said it was not.

McLaren had a second seat. Perez had shown some potential - there was always the chance he could turn out to be the next big thing. For whatever reason (car / actual ability) that didn't happen, so they've cut him loose.

[Vaud]

CraigyMc said:

I sort of expect him to do two seasons with McLaren-Honda (2015 and 2016), then shuffle off and do something else. He'd be 36 by then, so still not ancient.

I'm hoping he does Le Mans...

[CraigyMc]

Henry Fiddleton said:

So why did they employ him in the first place! (I know if was money based) but Whitmarsh said it was not.

The people who know for sure why that happened won't say until they are writing their memoirs, and perhaps not even then.

I think McLaren were caught out by Hamilton jumping ship for Mercedes, and Perez became their best alternative. Magnussen and Vandoorne were waay too young at that point to consider putting in the car, so I think McLaren ended up boxed in by the market.

It's been a while since McLaren had a young driver as promising as either of those guys - Hamilton was the last one. For my money, although Magnussen is just about ready now and Vandoorne isn't, I recon the latter is slightly quicker.

If he ends up with the drive, Magnussen is capable of being right on the pace from the first race - he proved as much at Abu Dhabi.

My final thought: Developing the new car needs someone to drive it right on the limit of the possible (and slightly over that), which isn't really Button's forte. A young charger is totally appropriate in my opinion. Twas ever thus.

[CraigyMc]

Vaud said:

CraigyMc said:

I sort of expect him to do two seasons with McLaren-Honda (2015 and 2016), then shuffle off and do something else. He'd be 36 by then, so still not ancient.

I'm hoping he does Le Mans...

If he ever decided to do that he'd clean up. It suits how he works and how he drives.

[Ken Sington]

Vaud said:

I'm hoping he does Le Mans...

Didnt JB sign a long term deal with Macs that would see him do LM after F1 and become some sort of brand ambassador for them?

[weyland yutani]

Given how competitive F1 is for seats these days I imagine it's very hard to recover once you've been dropped by a top team after one year, even if the car was poor.

[woof]

I think Perez will find a seat with Force India or perhaps Sauber. It's vitally important for Mexico to keep a Mexican driver on the grid for the 2014 (or more likely 2015) race there.

[Chrisgr31]

CraigyMc said:

Henry Fiddleton said:

So why did they employ him in the first place! (I know if was money based) but Whitmarsh said it was not.

The people who know for sure why that happened won't say until they are writing their memoirs, and perhaps not even then.

I think McLaren were caught out by Hamilton jumping ship for Mercedes, and Perez became their best alternative. Magnussen and Vandoorne were waay too young at that point to consider putting in the car, so I think McLaren ended up boxed in by the market.

It's been a while since McLaren had a young driver as promising as either of those guys - Hamilton was the last one. For my money, although Magnussen is just about ready now and Vandoorne isn't, I recon the latter is slightly quicker.

If he ends up with the drive, Magnussen is capable of being right on the pace from the first race - he proved as much at Abu Dhabi.

My final thought: Developing the new car needs someone to drive it right on the limit of the possible (and slightly over that), which isn't really Button's forte. A young charger is totally appropriate in my opinion. Twas ever thus.

I read an article somewhere (F1 Racing?) which suggested that employing Perez in the first place was an impulsive decision by Whitmarsh and that McLaren had not run all the data through their simulation etc. Whitmarsh made the decision partly id despration partly in case he was snapped up by someone else etc. Now they have run all the figures through the computer and indeed experienced him as a driver that they find he is not good enough to match JB and never likely to be, therefore better to change him noww in the hope the replacement can match and beat JB.

[joema]

Ken Sington said:

Vaud said:

I'm hoping he does Le Mans...

Didnt JB sign a long term deal with Macs that would see him do LM after F1 and become some sort of brand ambassador for them?

Yea maybe. Saw a news article that maclaren will be at Le Mans in 2015 in gte or whatever it is then.

Intrigued by comment over how his driving style would help

[Vaud]

joema said:

Yea maybe. Saw a news article that maclaren will be at Le Mans in 2015 in gte or whatever it is then.

Intrigued by comment over how his driving style would help

Wasn't my comment but I think I'd support it. Le Mans 24 isn't a maximum attack race, it's consistency, sensitivity to changing conditions and race craft which Jenson has plenty of. He does lack a little in qualifying but that's not as much a hinderance in a 24 hour race?

[joema]

Qualifying is flat out. You can argue it's importance as it is an endurance.

LM24 looks like more of a sprint than F1 these days as they don't have pirellis to nurse. Ironic really isn't it?

I'd like to see JB at Le Mans. Would hope a few follow Webber there

[rubystone]

woof said:

I think Perez will find a seat with Force India or perhaps Sauber. It's vitally important for Mexico to keep a Mexican driver on the grid for the 2014 (or more likely 2015) race there.

Indeed. He is a shoe-in for Guttierez...

[Kneetrembler]

Ken Sington said:

Didnt JB sign a long term deal with Macs that would see him do LM after F1 and become some sort of brand ambassador for them?

I remember reading the same.

[AlexS]

joema said:

Qualifying is flat out. You can argue it's importance as it is an endurance.

LM24 looks like more of a sprint than F1 these days as they don't have pirellis to nurse. Ironic really isn't it?

I'd like to see JB at Le Mans. Would hope a few follow Webber there

Something must have gone wrong last weekend then. The tyres were lasting less laps than a tank of fuel.

[vx220]

AlexS said:

Something must have gone wrong last weekend then. The tyres were lasting less laps than a tank of fuel.

The tyres ALWAYS last less laps than a tank of fuel! No refuelling for how many years?

[McClure]

vx220 said:

AlexS said:

Something must have gone wrong last weekend then. The tyres were lasting less laps than a tank of fuel.

The tyres ALWAYS last less laps than a tank of fuel! No refuelling for how many years?

I think he's referring to the WEC, not F1.

[Vocal Minority]

I think the smoother driving style will allow him to metronomically put in consistent lap after consistent lap at a good pace with minimal mistakes rather than be helpful through tyre preservation. Would be glad to see JB there (more to life in racing than F1)

Perez has money, therefore if he is good he will rise to the top. If not i guess the market has spoken.

Also re: the Button was lucky guy, have you any examples on how that 12/5 ratio would be turned round due to luck? At the moment you sound like someone with the irrational axe to grind

[rubystone]

I can't see JB bothering to race in any other formula when he leaves McLaren in 2015 (or possibly 2016). I guess there's an outside possibility that he might race for McLaren themselves in WEC, but he doesn't strike me as having the fire, nor needing the ego massage of accepting an offer from a top ranking WEC team.

And he is astute enough to realise that DTM requires some special skills that to date, no ex F1 driver has been able to grasp.