Sergio Perez. Mexico's greatest driver since Pedro Rodriguez?

[chunterer]

Not that I want to get too carried away by his Thursday testing form but Perez has been a class act all the way through to F1.

He could so easily have been British F3 and GP2 champion by now if he'd had a bit more good fortune (and kept out of other people's accidents..).

There haven't been a great many top line Mexican's since the early 70's but could Sergio be the first Mexican to win a GP since Pedro?

[ptclaus98]

He won't even be the best of his generation.

[Kai]

I have high hopes for both him and Guttierrez.

[cmotd]

Vettel and Sutil were both impressed by his lap times in testing recently, apart from that I don't know much about him

[ghinzani]

I always liked Josele Garza and wished he had got that Minardi drive in 88 - he was very underrated.

[Peralta]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Not that I want to get too carried away by his Thursday testing form but Perez has been a class act all the way through to F1.

He could so easily have been British F3 and GP2 champion by now if he'd had a bit more good fortune (and kept out of other people's accidents..).

There haven't been a great many top line Mexican's since the early 70's but could Sergio be the first Mexican to win a GP since Pedro?

It would have been hard for him to win the British F3 Championship with T-Sport giving the fact that it is a midfield team and didn't have a teammate to help develop the car but despite all that, he did manage to lead it halfway. He clearly should have been champion in GP2 if hadn't been for a disqualification after winning and been taken out by other drivers however he did to make some silly errors most likely caused by pressure to catch up to Maldonado. I do think he was faster than all of them last year and showed the way at Monaco with Maldonado at his tail.

F1 is another story and time will tell if he will succeed. He has a good team for his learning years but I am sure he will be the equal of Kobayashi if not quicker. In Mexico we think Gutierrez is even quicker but I have a soft heart for Checo simply because he is from my hometown. Hopefully Mexico will have two race winners in the future.

[strider]

T-Sport is not a midfield British F3 team. Sergio was leading the points by 32 after Monza, where he won both races from 14th on the grid. I think 2008 was a vintage year for BF3, so to have done as well as he did against the might of Red Bull and Carlin, who found a tweak for their three cars in the last third of the season, was very impressive.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Not that I want to get too carried away by his Thursday testing form but Perez has been a class act all the way through to F1.

He could so easily have been British F3 and GP2 champion by now if he'd had a bit more good fortune (and kept out of other people's accidents..).

There haven't been a great many top line Mexican's since the early 70's but could Sergio be the first Mexican to win a GP since Pedro?

Some said here, and I agree, that F1 is completely different thing from anything before, so drivers that did well in lower categories can be nothing in F1... for now it's all we can think of.

[chunterer]

I had deliberately not mentioned Gutierrez as Perez is sort of one generation above him, but he is also looking a strong F1 potential.

Perez will surely have to deliver pretty quickly though, as Esteban is right behind him!

I am sure the aim is for Telmex to have both of them in F1 long term, but there may only be enough room for one of them?

It's not very often that a driver who is quick in both F3 and the next level up is slow in F1. I know that beinjg in the right car/team at the right time is paramount these days but I can't think of many who disappointed at the top having showed strongly below that (stefano Modena is a prime example) but that will be going a fair way OT!!!

[strider]

Telmex are for Mexican drivers the same as Red Bull are for pretty much anyone. They start their drivers very young, nut they have to keep delivering otherwise they get dropped. Salvador Duran is the prime example.

Perez was plucked from Brazil at a ridiculously young age, 14 or 15, and dropped in Europe to find his feet and prove his ability. As a result he has an inner steel that will be pretty useful this year.

[Jacques Rabbit]

I'm not entirely sold on Pérez, but I will say this about him: he's gotten better at every harder level of racing. His record in his earliest lower level series are pathetic, but as he got up to British F3 and GP2, he started to deliver. On the one hand, you wonder how good he really is because he's perfectly capable of producing a ****ter of a season, but on the other hand, seeing him raise his game to exceed his past form in an even more challenging series really shows a lot of promise from him. I think he'll have an up-and-down season for Sauber, but in time, he could be a contender if only because he's always gotten better in time.

I do think that both he and Maldonado belong, though, and I'm glad to see both get the shot (even if some may make Maldonado the scapegoat for who he replaced).

[Peralta]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

I'm not entirely sold on Pérez, but I will say this about him: he's gotten better at every harder level of racing. His record in his earliest lower level series are pathetic, but as he got up to British F3 and GP2, he started to deliver. On the one hand, you wonder how good he really is because he's perfectly capable of producing a ****ter of a season, but on the other hand, seeing him raise his game to exceed his past form in an even more challenging series really shows a lot of promise from him. I think he'll have an up-and-down season for Sauber, but in time, he could be a contender if only because he's always gotten better in time.

I do think that both he and Maldonado belong, though, and I'm glad to see both get the shot (even if some may make Maldonado the scapegoat for who he replaced).

That is entirely true about his earlier career in Formula BMW but I think his heart at the time was not in racing but his first passion which was futbol and probably the fact that he was thrown in the deepens all alone in aforeign country at such a young age. Basically his father who managed Adeian Fernandez and was a racer himself wants his kids in racing. We may be better for it. Time will tell.

One poster in a different site said either Red Bull are sand bagging, the Sauber is a very quick car or Perez may be the next Senna.

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Peralta

...or Perez may be the next Senna.

Oh yeah, specially when we remember Senna's career in lower categories.

[ghinzani]

Is Perez the fella who did that amazing comeback drive in BF3 a few years back? If so then he has got something special for sure.

[ensign14]

Perez may well be Mexico's greatest driver since Pedro, but that's more due to a lack of competition...

Sauber showing well in testing? Never seen that before...

[Jacques Rabbit]

The good thing about comparing drivers to Senna is that if the driver doesn't succeed, you can just go back and say you meant Bruno.

[Peralta]

Originally Posted by ghinzani

Is Perez the fella who did that amazing comeback drive in BF3 a few years back? If so then he has got something special for sure.

Yeah that's him. Beating the likes of Daniel Ricciardo. He did it twice! It was featured in Autosport in an article about best comebacks in Formula 3.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Jacques Rabbit

The good thing about comparing drivers to Senna is that if the driver doesn't succeed, you can just go back and say you meant Bruno.

Bit unfair that, he's a fair bit better than Bruno surely??

[strider]

Originally Posted by Peralta

Yeah that's him. Beating the likes of Daniel Ricciardo. He did it twice! It was featured in Autosport in an article about best comebacks in Formula 3.

Except it was Alguersuari he beat. Ricciardo was in BF3 a year later.

[chunterer]

Thought my mind was playing tricks on me!! Thanks for clarifying that strider.

Someone mentioned a few posts back that Sergio hasn't really had much competition from his country so he's bound to look good (or similar?)

I'm not sure that that's a huge issue to debate as at the end of the day once they've moved beyond domestic karting, most driver's priorities, no matter how good they are, is taking on the world's best.

If you asked Lewis Hamilton whether his focus was beating Button and Di Resta or Alonso and Vettel, I bet he'd say he's be more bothered about the latter two?

We could say the same about Australian, New Zealand or anywhere that hasn't had many drivers come through. For example I don't think Webber had many serious rivals from his homeland on the way through, he was just a driver with massive potential and his concern is competing with the rest of the F1 drivers regardless of nationality, same goes for Ricciardo now.

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by Bononi

Some said here, and I agree, that F1 is completely different thing from anything before, so drivers that did well in lower categories can be nothing in F1... for now it's all we can think of.

That's because drivers fortunes are generally digited by F1 team managers, sponsors, manufacturers or even Bernie. How many #2 or lower team drivers didn't shine as they could because the impossibility to have privileges as other favoured drivers.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by Mekola

That's because drivers fortunes are generally digited by F1 team managers, sponsors, manufacturers or even Bernie. How many #2 or lower team drivers didn't shine as they could because the impossibility to have privileges as other favoured drivers.

I disagree here, most number 2 drivers are just plain not as good as the team number 1. The pecking order is determined at every practice and every race. Occasionally a driver may be asked to move over for a team mate when he is directly in front of the better driver, BUT the team number 1 is the best driver in that team, if he isn't he generally loses the number 1 status pretty quickly. Piquet and Brundle with Schumacher.
Prost and Senna would probably have been equal, and Alonso and Hamilton probably had Hamilton as the favoured one, but they were pretty even, as are Vettel and Webber.

I am open to suggestions where this was not the case, it is an interesting thought! Where has a clearly better driver been the number 2.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by strider

Except it was Alguersuari he beat. Ricciardo was in BF3 a year later.

OOOPS!

[Super Hans]

Originally Posted by wnut

I am open to suggestions where this was not the case, it is an interesting thought! Where has a clearly better driver been the number 2.

I'm not sure about 'clearly better' but it could be argued that Ronnie Peterson and Gilles Villeneuve were equally as good as (if not a bit better than) their victorious team-mates in '78 and '79. However, they both knew their role and remained loyal.

That was in the days of proper contracted #2 drivers though. Colin Chapman didn't have to trot out a load of old rhubarb about giving the drivers an equal opportunity, as Christian Horner has to do now.

[Flyin Ryan]

Originally Posted by ghinzani

I always liked Josele Garza and wished he had got that Minardi drive in 88 - he was very underrated.

He drove for Uncle Bobby. Uncle Bobby wasn't very high on him.

There haven't been a great many top line Mexican's since the early 70's...

Well they all looked north instead of across the ocean. If forced to come up with a guy, I'd probably say Adrian Fernandez is the best Mexican since I've been watching racing.