Sergio Perez, Racing Point, Silverstone, 2019

Perez has had a “very difficult and frustrating year”

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Sergio Perez says it’s been a tough first season for Racing Point since the team’s change in ownership.

What they say

Racing Point had closed to within nine points of fifth-placed Renault, but lost ground to their rivals in Austin:

It’s been a very difficult year. A very frustrating year as well. A lot of the time just lacking pace, performance.

Towards the end of the season we managed to recover a bit. I think there is a lot of potential. But still we’ve got to finish high, it’s very important the constructors’ position so we’ve got to push hard in the coming races.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

How do Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel stack up against each other on one-lap pace?

Vettel has qualified 159 times in front of his team mates, and lost 80 battles. That’s almost exactly a 2:1 ratio, 66,5%.

Hamilton has won 160 qualy battles, and lost 88. That’s 64,5%.

Vettel’s battle with Raikkonen ended 57-24, so I wouldn’t take that one season where Raikkonen won that much into account.
After all, Hamilton lost to Rosberg 7-12 in 2014. That total, also over 4 seasons, adds up to 42-36, which is pretty even.

I think it is fair to say that Nico Rosberg was a great qualifier (and Button was always pretty bad at that, on the other hand), so I wouldn’t count that into Vettel’s favor.

What I am saying is that the 1 lap performance in qualifying is not too different, over their careers, between Hamilton and Vettel.

One might say that a season against Alonso (who was also known to be better on a Sunday than on a Saturday) and four against Rosberg, plus a decent qualifier like Bottas makes it 8 difficult duels.

I think Raikkonen is comparable to Bottas in terms of qualifying pace; Webber is surely better than Kovalainen and Button at it, maybe a tad worse than Rosberg. And Leclerc is pretty damn good.

So I would say that this is closer to a tie than some might believe.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Perez has had a “very difficult and frustrating year””

  1. Re:COTD I always Vettel and Hamilton represent 2 opposite driving style for qualifying.

    Vettel is great at doing the perfect lap as he want it to be. He often make a mental run while waiting in garage and then position the car perfectly and consistently. That’s why Vettel usually post great time since the beginning of the qualifying session but his following runs only minimally improved, that makes it hard to tell if he got better run or just because of track evolution.

    Hamilton is great at always eking out that extra tenth on every run. He usually starts pretty “slow” in first run of Q1, but with every run you can feel he still found something outside of track evolution. Often he will post “extraordinary” time in final run in Q3, especially compared to how he start in Q1.

    Not saying one of them is better than the other, but Hamilton style certainly gave the viewers much more easier “drama” to understand and certainly makes him looks like regularly pulling a miracle (especially if he won pole after being behind other cars in Q1).

  2. Claire Williams is definitely creating a legacy for herself… I’m not sure though, if it’s the one she wants.

    1. Unfortunate choice of words. Williams, Frank and Claire’s mother left a legacy, Claire can’t expect to create a new one.

  3. The stats are interesting but f1 is all about the car, doesn’t matter Hams Q heat to head isn’t that good, or that he has had some competition from his team mates, what matters is that when you have the chance to win, you deliver. I don’t think Ham makes that merc any faster what he does is he make his team mates slower and more importantly Wins.

    1. The comment was a response to people commenting on Vettels praising of Leclerc, who seemed to “show” Vettel was a meh driver based on his qualy battle losses.
      So, I don’t disagree that sunday is when it matters, but it wasn’t a comparison of the two drivers in general. Lewis is at least one step above Seb, all in all.

  4. Re Esteban Gutierrez’s tweet as it concerns the event last Saturday featuring F1 demo runs: I wish Renault would stop using the 2012 Lotus E20 for demo runs entirely. They have already used the 2017 R.S.17 for some runs earlier this year, so they should just go with that. Mercedes have been using hybrid era-cars for these runs for a little while already, so other manufacturer-teams should follow suit, and I mean other manufacturers who both have a team and a PU in F1.

  5. Sergio Perez is ranked 2nd in Formula B this year. Second! He is the only one who could mathematically still catch Sainz. That is an incredible feat, given the circumstances.

    1. I always struggle to really know how good perez is – he had a wonderful season in 2012 (when he nearly won in malaysia) although that year’s sauber was probably a really good car (kobayashi also scored a podium that year) and has put in some memorable drives ever since. it stands out for me that he was able to take all his opportunities for a big result, while other drivers in similar situations have failed (e.g. hulkenberg). his year at mclaren was basically a disaster and with hindsight he might have been better staying put and waiting for his chance at ferrari. the idea that he burned his bridges with ferrari (by taking the mclaren drive) reflects worse on ferrari than him, in my opinion. ferrari were always behind the 8-ball in terms of driver selection (right up until taking a punt on leclerc this year, which has worked out very well).

      but the poor year at mclaren still introduces that level of doubt that he may not be able to really step it up in a top car. the Peter Principle is the idea that someone can be promoted above their level of competence, but there’s no way to know until it happens. perhaps perez is an example of this – great in the midfield, but in a top car he doesn’t quite have it. without knowing how bad the 2013 mclaren was, it’s hard to say.

      i doubt perez will get a top drive, but he’s cemented his reputation as worthy of his place in the sport (which is more than can be said for a whole raft of midfield drivers of the past decade or so).

      1. He is the new Hulkenberg. Just a tad more consistent.

      2. @frood19 Too bad we’ve never seen Perez in a top car.

  6. @frood19 Judging Perez in McLaren is super hard to do it fairly. That year is the year when the team most politically unstable, not to mention their first non race winning car in 2 decades. People put high expectation on him to start winning races or at least a regular podium contender because, well it’s McLaren and they’re (still) championship contender the previous year. But the car is bad (Mercedes already cut many technical cooperation and support mainly because the incoming Honda switch), and while many people not rated Button highly, he is still a great and proven driver and he also can’t do much better than Perez with the MP4-28.

    Also as usual, Perez did well, or at least as expected, for a driver that joining a new team. And back then no one even think he doesn’t deserve a drive in top team, even Martin Whitmarsh want to keep him, The problem is McLaren (the F1 racing team) is forced by some other department to pick Magnussen (which did worse than Perez, but to be fair he’s a rookie) next year and obviously Button is the better driver to keep back then. It just sad that Perez seat obviously doomed in McLaren back then, that even if they keep him and not getting Magnussen, he’ll still lose his seat to Alonso or Vandoorne in the following years.

    While I’m sure there’s no bridges burnt between McLaren and Perez, I doubt both of them would want to work together again as it’ll be awkward, but then again Alonso situation is more awkward. However as McLaren fan, I’d like to see Perez drive for McLaren again in the future although Sainz jr and Norris is the perfect driver for now.

  7. Claire Williams trying to create a legacy? I tend to feel both she and the team are heading towards a crossroads then. Either she will dig them out of this hole, turn this sinking ship around and lead Williams back to competitiveness – which would certainly be a worthy legacy to have, or she’ll be going down with the ship and her legacy will be the collapse of a formerly championship winning team. I hope she’s successful and turning them around.

    Can’t help but feel time is running out though – I doubt Williams, or her, can afford many more seasons like the past few.

  8. The frustration of Perez is likely knowing he made a huge blunder not going for the McLaren seat.

    Even I am frustrated by it. A talent going to waste.

  9. I don’t know Ms. Williams (and none of us do, except maybe anon, cause he/she knows everything) but she seems like a decent person who has the hardest job on the grid. A lot of people are looking for her to fall on her face, just because she is a woman and also because she doesn’t have the usual professional background—running teams in other formula, etc. Added to that, you have your legendary dad and a jilted heir of a brother looking over your shoulder.

    And I think, in the circumstances, the best thing for the employees and stakeholders may be to just run at the back, put in the minimum in marginal expenditures, and just pick up the check at the end of the year. Yes, they could go into major debt and try to poach the best talent, etc., but she can’t put the team in a position where it has to sell out or go bankrupt. And she can’t agree to become a “B-team” like Haas or Torro Rosso. Her main job is to keep “Williams” on the door and it has to be a legitimate constructor to keep the legacy going. For the same reasons, ironically, she can’t step down and let someone who doesn’t value the legacy to come in and do any of those things. Seems like a terrible bind.

  10. Perez is the only race driver in a team who’s target is to let a rich boy play F1.
    Being a one driver team dragged Williams backwards, same has happened for Force India Daddy Stroll’s Racing Point.

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