[Driver] Sergio Perez confirmed at Sauber for 2011

[Born Racer]

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin.../10/11338.html

[Mekola]

I expected that. Telmex was expected to enter in F1 world since many years ago and Pérez is mature enough to do his debut. And Gutiérrez is at his back...

[chunterer]

Great to have this confirmed, although I didn't think there would be any announcement about his future for a while yet, or at least until Slim had decided which team to get behind!

Sauber is a decent little team with which to make onces debut as well. It will be interesting to see how Sergio compares to Kobayashi, both are serious hard chargers after all.....

[NaBUru38]

Originally Posted by Mekola

Pérez is mature enough to do his debut.

I believe that he's still too young at 21 for Bahrein 2011.

[Peralta]

I still can't understand why they dropped PDR for Heidfeld since they knew Telmex and Checo would be their future. Maybe what they should do now is rehire PDR for Friday runs in conjuction with his tyre testing so that he can give insight to the designers about the tyres. This way they can have a competitive car. Is it possible for PDR to be contracted to both Pirelli and Sauber? This is why I said previous that I didn't understand why Heidfeld left Pirelli. He wouldve been more lucrative to a team for 2011 had he stayed instead of racing for 5 races. Anyway I'm happy for Checo and I think he will be the equal of Kobayashi.

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Perez is an absolute star, and has been since National Class British F3. I just hope his skills will translate to F1, because being a great racer isn't always enough to make you a good F1 driver.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Peralta

I still can't understand why they dropped PDR for Heidfeld since they knew Telmex and Checo would be their future. Maybe what they should do now is rehire PDR for Friday runs in conjuction with his tyre testing so that he can give insight to the designers about the tyres.

Pedro has already stated he will not be a test driver in a team any more....
'I'll not do another season of testing' - de la Rosa

[bella]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Magnusson

Perez is an absolute star, and has been since National Class British F3. I just hope his skills will translate to F1, because being a great racer isn't always enough to make you a good F1 driver.

spot on - you'd struggle to find a better proper racer in gp2 or below at the moment (apart from sam bird maybe), but as kobayashi has shown you need a bit more than that to be a f1 driver.

cracking lineup though! i'd almost pay to see those two race each other

[ECW Dan Selby]

de la Rosa would have been a good bet for the new team that never made it.

Selby

[Birddog07]

Mexican GP? I think every team and driver should have a home GP, after that fill in with classic GP countries, quit adding new rubbish to the calendar.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Is the Mexico track still being used/unaltered?

Selby

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by ECW Dan Selby

Is the Mexico track still being used/unaltered?

Selby

Hermanos Rodriguez was altered when the Champ Cars were there a few years ago to add a strange dogleg half way around Peraltada turn?

I think it was only temporary but there was definitely a stadium/complex built inside the famous corner, not sure if it was permanent though?

Mexico would be a good market for F1, as VW and one or two other companies have a big presence there as part of their low cost manufacturing methods.

Perez is a mega young talent and based on what they've done in GP2, you would think that he is better than Kamui. Although to be fair Perez had better equipment at his disposal.

[Wims]

There's a war going on in mexico these days tho, not so sure if F1 would want to go there

[bella]

wasn't there a wtcc race cancelled due to "safety concerns" recently as well?

i would agree and say that there needs to be another race in south america.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Hermanos Rodriguez was altered when the Champ Cars were there a few years ago to add a strange dogleg half way around Peraltada turn?

I think it was only temporary but there was definitely a stadium/complex built inside the famous corner, not sure if it was permanent though?

Mexico would be a good market for F1, as VW and one or two other companies have a big presence there as part of their low cost manufacturing methods.

Perez is a mega young talent and based on what they've done in GP2, you would think that he is better than Kamui. Although to be fair Perez had better equipment at his disposal.

Cheers for that, mate. Just had a little look on Wikipedia and it backs up what you said. Bit of a shame that there's something been built on the inside of it, though. Must be quite restricting.

Selby

[chunterer]

A war on? well in that case Bernie to the rescue!!!

What was the name of the place the WTCC went to? It was a bit like The Rock or Lausitzring?

Telmex could back the race and support for a really good local driver like Perez would be humungous!

[Wims]

The track was named Puebla. Terrible roval, but what made it interesting was the fact that the surface broke up and they ended up with basically a gravel race on a hard surface lol!

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Wims

The track was named Puebla. Terrible roval, but what made it interesting was the fact that the surface broke up and they ended up with basically a gravel race on a hard surface lol!

That's the one.

F1's used to going to venues where that sort of thing happens so seems ideal!

[Peralta]

The track layout is crap now and it's still very bumpy so it's not the same. If they do decide to build a new track elsewhere they should keep the same old layout as it was very exciting for both driver and spectator.

There has bee some talk about a race in Cancun.

[Belatti]

Originally Posted by Wims

There's a war going on in mexico these days tho, not so sure if F1 would want to go there

A war at Mexico? Where?


Maybe you saw "Machete" and got all confused

[E.B]

Originally Posted by bella

wasn't there a wtcc race cancelled due to "safety concerns" recently as well?

Yes there was....It was cancelled as you say down to safety concerns due to local flooding..... the Mexican authorities informed the FIA WTCC officials that they are unable to guarantee the safety of both drivers and spectators, due to recent severe flooding in the Puebla region where the race was due to be held, so the FIA 'pulled the plug' on the event.

Of course more recently in the '101 ways nature can stuff up your sporting event' list, we had the various events (ie Japanese MotoGP) cancelled or postponed due to the volcanic ash cloud over Iceland earlier this year. In fact the rescheduled race was run last weekend.

[J.C.]

Originally Posted by Belatti

A war at Mexico? Where?


Maybe you saw "Machete" and got all confused

I think he is talking about the "war on drugs" with the Mexican Cartels. That country is not in good shape. They snuggle the drugs here in the states. Basically the cartels can kill or put a hit on anybody in Mexico.

But anyways, Perez and Sauber? Hmmm.... seems Sauber is hurting for money.

[Mr Pink]

I think Perez is the perfect guy for Sauber, solve the money problems and get one of the most promising drivers beneath F1!

I, for one, am really looking forward to see what the team can do next year with this driver pairing!

[Jamesy-18]

Good. I rate the guy highly.

A Kobayashi/Perez line up at Sauber will be interesting to watch...

[Jimmy Magnusson]

Originally Posted by Jamesy-18

Good. I rate the guy highly.

A Kobayashi/Perez line up at Sauber will be interesting to watch...

It's got shades of Räikkönen/Heidfeld 2001 over it, in some ways. Question now is if Mr. Fernández will arrive to manage the team?