McLaren expects more from Sergio Pérez
Sergio Pérez is experiencing a rather complicated start to the season with his new team McLaren. The Mexican driver has been the subject of several criticisms regarding his behavior on the track, and his results are far from the expectations set for him by the Woking team. However, Martin Whitmarsh is patient and believes that his driver can improve quickly.
At the end of the Chinese Grand Prix last weekend, Sergio Pérez, who finished 11th, stated that he had experienced one of the hardest races since his Formula 1 debut with the Sauber team in 2011: “It was a tough afternoon for me. There are a lot of things to analyze and learn for us. It wasn’t my best weekend in terms of pace, so there’s work to be done.”
However, even if he believes that Pérez must do much better in the future, Martin Whitmarsh supports his driver and calls for patience: « Sergio was not satisfied with his weekend performance. He is not satisfied with himself, and he should not be. He is a young driver and he has had some difficulties. We have not given him a great single-seater, and he is competing against someone like Jenson Button, who is doing a fantastic job with the car we provide him. As a team, we must step up our efforts and support a very talented young driver. »
Several drivers also complained about Pérez’s behavior on track, notably Kimi Räikkönen who lost a part of his Lotus’s nose trying to overtake the Mexican. Once again, Whitmarsh played down the situation: « I find he has been very polite so far. He needs to toughen up. He has been very generous in allowing others to overtake him, and he was a bit more robust in China. »
Time will surely be Pérez’s best ally, at least that’s what the McLaren boss thinks: « He’s still a very young driver, and he’s in a team with a lot of expectations. He’s under close scrutiny and he has a teammate who is doing a very good job. He is under a lot of pressure and this weekend won’t go down in history as his best weekend of the year. »
