Perez out at McLaren ?

Kevin Magnussen may replace Sergio Perez at McLaren



BBC Sport - F1: Kevin Magnussen may replace Sergio Perez at McLaren

 

Magnussen rumours gain momentum


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Hummm, that must make life very uncomfortable for Sergio Perez as there are very few options left for him ....

 

Saw this earlier. Point about them still reaching out to FA says alot as well. Much going on behind the scenes. Evidently the Mexican money is able to be lost. Funny how many thought Perez was the next savior of Ferrari!!

 

No one thought he would be a savior for Ferrari, they just wanted him to replace Massa, myself included at the time. He would have been an improvement over Massa, but I'm thrilled with Kimi.

By the way, don't act like you didn't want him at Ferrari.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/141747148-post47.html

Lol.

Fairly clairvoyant, from same thread:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/141787156-post88.html

They get Kimi...

Oh and...

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/142272623-post73.html

Called it.

 

Really?

Perez never came across to me as a better driver than Massa.

I think McLaren took him onboard because of a few "flashes in the pan" at Sauber; but he was never consistant. This year at McLaren proved that.


Also, I never thought that Massa was THAT bad. But he has been undermined of late by all the rumours about his forced departure.

 

IMO, Massa has been horrendous since the start of 2011.

+1

I always said that Perez lacked the speed for a top team like McLaren. He couldn't even outqualify Kobayashi.

Undermined "of late?" The guy has been blown into the weeds by Alonso since the drop of the green flag in 2010.

 

I am aware of that, but the Ferrari structure was a designed Number One and a supporting Number Two.

Massa was playing the wingman to Alsonso, just like Irvine did to Schumacher, etc...

I think Massa has been good to the Scuderia over the years.

 

2006-2009, yes. 2010+ no.

Post 2010 Massa's points tally hovers around 50% of Alonso's or less. He never takes any points off of Alonso's rivals, does zero good for trying to win a WDC or WCC.

 

Maybe Alonso will find out if Kimi is much better in helping him, or if he has ambitions of his own on the WDC!

 

I think Ferrari will have a very strong team and Alonso will be fine. Kimi will obviously beat him plenty of times, but Alonso will come out ahead overall.

 

Strikes me a bit strange. Perez has done pretty well since his shaky start hasn't he? Button and Perez both had some miserable races.

Perhaps they're applying pressure to Perez or something.

 

I thought Ferrari passed on Perez cause he was slow in their simulator. Mclaren may swoop up hulk-or kobi in anticipation of Honda.

 

Would love to see The Hulk at McLaren--the stability of a top tier organization without the drama of Lotus.

 

No Telcel, TelMex, whichever $$$$, Perez is, and always will be, a second rate. He did not replace Massa for an obvious reason. If he was that much better than Phil, he would have been Alonso's teammate, not Button's.

Perez did not display the necessary attitude to be Ferrari's #2. But then, neither will Fred to Kimi, or Kimi to Fred. Seems like an old lesson that once again did not get learned, you really can not have two #1's on the team in F1.

 

I ca't see why yhe heat is on perez and not on Button...taking in acount button experience with the team, i found Checo did at least as well as he did....he wasn´t brilliant but neither was button, and the car was ****!!!

 

Seems odd they would only give him 1 year. I'd at least give him another. He has shown some fight, but he isn't a great qualifier, which was also his weak point at Sauber - my main concern voiced over a year ago when top teams were looking at him.

 

One would think Kevin would learn from his fathers mistakes. Jan was a legend in F3 but was brought in F1 too soon. He never stood a chance. Of course he is now a legend again in endurance racing, but I am sure he would strongly advise against Kevin being on the F1 grid in 2014.

Having said that, surely Perez isn't doing that bad? In fact, he seems to be holding his own against a very experienced former WC. He just needs to control himself while on the limit, but he seems to be getting the hang of it. I'll vote for another season with McLaren and then we'll see.

 

Completely agree.

 

As I recall Jan's biggest issue was his level of physical fitness. He was a smoker if you can believe it.

 

Ditching Perez for an untested rookie would be a mistake. Perez took his time settling in, but his performance level seems fine now. He has gone through the settling in period and will only get better given support and time. McL would be best served by providing a decent car to their drivers first. This years POS car is just dreadful. As it is, McL have already written off 2014 as their car will be a customer engine car. They don't really have any aspiration for the coming season other than to engineer a proper Honda powered contender for 2015.

 

Ha, I did not know that. I can however believe it

 

How bad does Honda what to win they better get a good development driver . Lets look at list vettel not leaving Hamilton just left there kimi just signed with ferrari Rosberg might look and I wouldn't believe I would say this but Alonso just might jump ship at the end of year if ferrari was any good I guaranteed McLaren would make a run at him

 

Lets face facts here: The 2013 McLaren has been a dog of a car! - Jenson Button has struggled with it almost as much as Perez has.

Even McLaren themselves have admitted over the season that the car was not good and that they didn't know how to fix it!

At Sauber, Perez was comfortable with the car and drove superbly, putting in some great performances and showed that he is a genuinely fast driver.

At McLaren, Perez has not only had to deal with getting used to a new team and engineers, with different ways of doing things (unlike Button!), but he has also had to deal with a difficult car that he has struggled to get comfortable with.

I don't believe Perez was a one season wonder at Sauber and is now an average/poor driver, I think it's more a case that McLaren have failed to nurture his talent properly.

The problem as I see it is, McLaren are looking for another Lewis Hamilton and thought they'd found it in Perez.

Now though, because he hasn't performed miracles in their dog of a car, it seems that they are thinking of giving up on him already, dumping him and trying another driver that they hope will be the next Hamilton for them.

To My mind, that's a poor decision. I'd give him at least another season to prove himself now he's more used to the team.



As for all the Alonso/McLaren nonsense, the part of that that makes sense is that McLaren already know that he is another driver like Hamilton, so there would be no gamble for them about his ability.

However, I don't believe Martin Whitmarsh was asked: "do you want Alonso back at McLaren?", I believe he was asked: "Would you have Alonso back at McLaren?".

The difference between the two questions is that the first one is enquiring if the team are actively pursuing Alonso, whilst the second question is merely a theoretical question about whether McLaren would accept him back into the team if he were available.

As I have posted elsewhere on here, Martin Whitmarsh has stated on the record that neither he nor McLaren have had any contact with Alonso or his agent and that, as far as he knows, Alonso has a contract with Ferrari for several years to come and is not available so it's a complete non-issue as far as he's concerned.

And as Alonso himself has said (many times!) (From: BBC Sport - Fernando Alonso: McLaren target Ferrari driver for next season ) :

When asked if a return to McLaren was tempting, Alonso said: "Not really. I love Ferrari and I will stay at Ferrari until the end [of my contract].

"It's nice to hear comments from all the team principals every year saying they respect my job and personality, especially McLaren.

"There were so many rumours that we had a lot of problems that year [2007] but I always said that there are no problems with anyone, it was just the philosophy of the team, especially one man in the team that is not there [anymore].

"It is good to have these comments but there is no intention. I have three more years with Ferrari and I hope many more to come if we can extend the contract and that would be my hope."

 

+1

 

+2
Yup Mclaren for sure have struggled, RD stepping down, LH leaving...who knows but it sure seems those factors have not helped.

Oh Phill I don't think Mclaren thought they had a new Lewis on there hands with Perez, just seemed the best option at the time, does seem early days to give him the chop though, if thats the case.