Sergio Perez |
|
|---|---|
| Beat team mate in qualifying | 8/19 |
| Beat team mate in race | 6/13 |
| Races finished | 18/19 |
| Laps spent ahead of team mate | 341/898 |
| Points | 78 |
| Sergio Perez 2015 form guide | |
Sergio Perez stood out with some excellent performances after Force India introduced their upgraded VJM08 at the British Grand Prix. But he also put in some largely overlooked drives of true quality in the first half of the season.
On top of that he showed up well against a quality team mate and generally stayed out of trouble. The outcome was a season which compared very well against many of the top drivers.
Perez failed to shine in the first two races of the year, spinning while trying to pass Jenson Button in Australia and misjudging a battle with Romain Grosjean in Malaysia, tipping the Lotus driver into a spin. These race-day frustrations tended to have their root in sub-par qualifying performances which in turn were down to that 2014 bugbear – tyre preparation.
But Perez made rapid progress and in Bahrain he stunned the team by ekeing out his tyres to complete the race with just two pit stops, something they did not believe would be possible. His reward was a meagre eighth place, but it was as good as the car was capable of and his team mate was 25 seconds behind.
Monaco was another drive from the top drawer – starting and finishing seventh behind a full complement of Mercedes, Ferraris and Red Bulls was the limit of what the car could do.
The new car arrived soon afterwards and in Hungary despite a scare in practice – a suspension failure flipped the car over – Perez made a rapid start and was on course for the points again when he was knocked off the track by Pastor Maldonado.
According to Perez, the next race in Belgium produced a breakthrough for him during practice. He lined up fourth on the grid, passed two others at the start and got to Les Combes before anyone else – though with Lewis Hamilton on the inside of him he was never going to stay there. Inevitably the car could not sustain that kind of position, but fifth was still the team’s best so far – until Perez raised it further.
After solid points finishes in Italy and Singapore – and a nothing race in Japan where he was knocked off at the first corner – Perez exploited a Safety Car period in Russia to put his tyre-nursing skills to superb use. He kept Valtteri Bottas at bay until the penultimate lap, when the Williams driver used every drop of power to demote him, and Kimi Raikkonen followed him by. That wasn’t the end of the story, of course – the pair tangled on the final lap handing Perez a fortuitous but richly deserved podium finish.
Another strong fifth in America meant expectations were high ahead of his home race. Although he finished behind team mate Nico Hulkenberg Perez was probably the quicker of the two, and was poorly served by his strategy.
The final race of the year saw Perez put his Force India on the second row again, and finished behind two Mercedes and two Ferraris. Again, it was hard to see how he could have done much better. If third in the rankings seems high, it is because it was often hard to say the same of many of those behind him. >> Find out more and sign up
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View race-by-race notes on Sergio Perez
Australia – Interestingly, when the FIA discovered Perez had overtaken Ericsson under the Safety Car they chose to tell him to hand the position back instead of dishing out a penalty as they did to Heikki Kovalainen in similar circumstances three years ago. He had to let Button past while doing that, and later spun while trying to pass the McLaren. He got past in the end, however, and collected the final point.
Malaysia – For the second weekend in a row Perez had a disappointing race. He lost a lot of ground after the Safety Car period as his medium tyres began to fade, then an unnecessary collision with Grosjean meant he also received a ten-second penalty.
China – The first car to be eliminated in Q2, Perez was one of the few drivers to opt for an aggressive three stop strategy to try and make places through the field. Was catching Ericsson’s tenth placed Sauber in the final stint, but was unlikely to have ever challenged him even without the Safety Car.
Bahrain – Force India’s simulations showed the downforce deficient VJM08 would not be able to use the same two-stop strategy as many of the team’s rivals. But Perez made it work and brought the car home in eighth place, a result the four-time podium finisher called “one of my best races”.
Spain – A long final stint on medium tyres allowed him to hold off Ericsson for 13th place, but any repeat of his Bahrain heroics was out of the question on a track where the VJM08’s shortcomings were so clearly exposed.
Monaco – It’s hard to see how he might have improved on seventh in qualifying and the race given that he had three pairs of faster cars – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull – ahead of him each time.
Canada – If he’d been able to replicate his Q2 lap time in Q3 he’d have started eighth on the grid behind his team mate, but struggled to generate tyre temperature on his out lap. Tyre, brake and fuel-saving was the story of the latter part of Perez’s race. He finished eleventh, and Force India’s effort to get another penalty for Grosjean so their man would inherit tenth came to naught.
Austria – Stuck behind Alonso in Q1, with Raikkonen close behind, and failed to make the cut on the drying track. However he started well, despite being on the harder tyres, and nabbed a place off Grosjean at the restart. After switching to super-softs for the second stint, he was able to pass Kvyat and Nasr for ninth place.
Britain – Narrowly missed out on joining his team mate in the top ten shoot-out but said the updated VJM08 still has much untapped potential. Scrapped with both the Ferrari drivers during the race but finished behind both of them, saying he waited too long to put on intermediates at the end.
Hungary – A right-rear suspension failure cause a substantial crash in first practice, and Perez admitted afterwards he’d been scared when his car flipped over. He bounced back to take 13th on the grid and mimicked his team mate by making up five places at the start. However he was turfed off the track by Maldonado while passing the Lotus, and with a damaged car and a lengthening brake pedal Force India later opted to retire him.
Belgium – Was extremely pleased with his car’s balance and qualified fifth which became fourth after Grosjean’s penalty – his best since Bahrain last year. It got even better at the start as he passed Bottas and Perez – and nearly took Hamilton too. Ricciardo jumped him at the first round of pit stops but Perez used his grip advantage to pass him shortly afterwards. However his car proved too hard on its tyres and he eventually lost places to Grosjean and Kvyat. Nonetheless fifth was Force India’s best result so far this year.
Italy – Briefly moved up to fifth at the start before Rosberg came past, then had to give up another position to Raikkonen who passed him easily in the DRS zone. Nonetheless collected a solid sixth place.
Singapore – Believed he could have made it into Q3 had it not been for the yellow flag caused by Sainz. He gained three places at the start, however, and profitted from the first Safety Car period to make up more places. He eventually finished seventh, holding off the fast-closing Toro Rossos in the closing stages.
Japan – Having qualified ninth he was unfortunate to be knocked off at the first corner while trying to avoid the Ricciardo/Massa mess. With no Safety Car appearing points were impossible, but he made it back up to 12th.
Russia – Running sixth after the start, Perez was well-placed to take advantage of the Safety Car period caused by Grosjean’s accident, and as in the past he proved a master at coaxing every last drop of life from his tyres. Even so his podium hopes seemed to be over when Bottas and Raikkonen passed him with DRS on the penultimate lap – only for the pair to collide on the next tour, restoring him to a well deserved third place.
United States – Out-qualified Hulkenberg and started fifth. That was where he finished too, though he probably should have been able to keep Verstappen behind.
Mexico – Force India expected better conditions at the end of Q3 and sent both drivers out then – only to discover the track had actually deteriorated. Perez narrowly won the intra-team contest this time. In the race he made two crowd-pleasing passes in the stadium (one aided by Sainz being told to let him past) but when the Safety Car came out Force India mistakenly believed they could gain him two places by not pitting. That didn’t pay off, but he held his position despite ending the race on 53-lap-old tyres.
Brazil – Said he wasn’t comfortable with the car all weekend, and admitted to an error on his last run in Q2 which cost him a place in the final ten. His difficulties continued into the race – unusually he pitted once more than his team mate and found himself passed by cars which were slower in a straight line as his tyres went off quickly.
Abu Dhabi – After his Brazil blip Perez was back at the strong level of performance which has characterised much of his second half of the year. He was third after the initial runs in Q3, but slipped to fourth when Raikkonen bettered his time. With Vettel making up for lost time in the race, fifth was likely the best result available.
Over to you
Normally a bit of an inconsistent driver with some flashes of brilliance and some mistakes. But this year he’s been on fire. In the A-version of the car he did a pretty solid job. But once the B-version was introduced he delivered some really great performances. Third at Sochi and fifth places at Austin and Abu Dhabi are the highlights of his season.
@Jlracing
What’s your verdict on Sergio Perez’s 2015 season? Which drivers do you feel he performed better or worse than? Have your say in the comments.
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Sward (@)
17th December 2015, 12:55
Scorchingly hot take…
F1FanMe
18th December 2015, 1:47
Agreed. Keith did an awesome job with this article. Well done. Congrats!! to Perez he deserves No.3 even tho the haters are gonna hate. Thats why he is the most underrated driver on the gird in my opinion.
They say “The Devil is in the Details” Maybe Greatness is also in the Details. Refreshing to see an unbiased assessment of this driver.
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
17th December 2015, 13:11
I was a little dubious about him being ranked so highly, but after reading that, clearly I had forgotten about the brilliant job he’s done this year.
Patrick (@paeschli)
17th December 2015, 16:39
Exactly, he has been incredble this year.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
17th December 2015, 18:29
When you look back at some of the hate Perez was getting on this site in late 2012 and 2013, people’s opinion of him was once no better than Maldonado. Also, most expected Hulkenberg to crush him prior to 2014. It is amazing how he has been able to turn it around.
To the Max !
17th December 2015, 13:17
If the argument for a driver is, he’s not able to push above his weight and just does what he can do being limited in extracting more out a car…it’s not the driver who got ranked, but VJM08 ‘B-spec’ name should be 3th ranked.
Pérez was simply found too many times fighting on track with a Verstappen in a slower car in the second half of the season to have him ranked that high…next time driver performances should be rated instead of car improvement performance.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
17th December 2015, 13:31
Please don’t bring up Verstappen in every topic.
To the Max !
17th December 2015, 13:57
Why ?
In this case it’s justified because the argument being used for putting Pérez as high 3th above someone like Verstappen was nothing more as, “he did the job he was being paid for,” and that is, to take the car to places where it belongs without taking it any further, while at the same time there was driver who did more as that.
So anyone still thinking about what the level of Pérez and Hulkenberg actually is, and if top teams are going to be interested in having them as a nr.1 driver, if a car is better as other cars, but at the same time you can see the drivers battling with drivers with slower cars, they aren’t really being rated that high by Team Principals.
To bring up Verstappen is legit, because obviously Keith completely missed to look up on how Pérez did relative to Verstappen in terms of speed during the races.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
17th December 2015, 15:43
Keith does not have to look up on how Pérez did relative to Verstappen, he has to look up on how Pérez did relative to every other driver, including Verstappen. Don’t react like you are stung by a bee everytime someone favours a driver over Verstappen (regardless of how amazing Max was this year). Like I said, next to pure facts, the driver rankings are also subjective. Keith is really positive about Verstappen, does it really matter what ranking he eventually gets?
To the Max !
17th December 2015, 16:12
I was tripping over the argumentation being used by Keith to put Pérez higher as other drivers. He basically says, I rank Pérez as high as that, because I don’t see any drivers doing anything special…and now let’s look into that…
So a driver with a slower car is found many times battling in races with a driver with a faster car…now what does that mean ?…either one driver is underperforming or the other driver is “punching above his weight,” it’s only one or the other…
…now Keith doesn’t seem to think the driver in the faster car was underperforming, or else he would not have put him so high up in the ranking (I agree with him, the driver deserves a reasonable high ranking), but that also automatically means the other driver was “punching above his weight,” which you could say is something pretty special for someone in just his second year of formula racing, and first year of F1.
So apparently Keith thinks a driver “punching above his weight,” is nothing special, but a driver just doing the job which he is supposed to do is special…
…now if you have such a controversial opinion, he would be better off in putting a disclaimer right away with it, because there are bound to be people tripping over that.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th December 2015, 16:39
Not that I agree your Verstappen-centric approach is the correct one to take, nevertheless he is mentioned above.
drrapg (@drrapg)
17th December 2015, 16:40
+ 1
To the Max !
17th December 2015, 16:54
I wanted to bring Arjen Robben into the discussion too, but I will spare you that one. ;)
drrapg (@drrapg)
17th December 2015, 17:02
lol, good one!
It wasn’t penalty!
To the Max !
17th December 2015, 17:10
Well, so we got an undeserved 3th because of that, we can call it even now…?
drrapg (@drrapg)
17th December 2015, 17:23
Haha, we can call it even…
Do not get me wrong, I really like max and I hope he delivers what everybody is expecting from him, I can’t wait for next season and hopefully STR and SFI have similar performance cars so we can truly compare both drivers
To the Max !
17th December 2015, 17:41
…same here the other way around, I simply would have put Pérez probably one place behind Verstappen.
I had such a big laugh because of Checo at the Canadian GP drivers conference when they brought up Verstappen/Massa, his grinning at the back (together with Pastor) was just priceless.
It will be interesting to see how both are going to do next season. I think it will help them a lot by not being at such a big disadvantage on the straights, and we might see a tight battle in the midfield next season (I hope we do).
Todfod (@todfod)
18th December 2015, 7:29
I would have to agree with you. I agreed with Keith’s rankings up until the #11th spot. After that, I do not think I could disagree more.
Sergio only really came alive in the last 6 to 7 races of the season. I thought he tangled a little too much with other drivers at the start of the season, and was just about as good as his teammate for most of the season. Yet, Hulkenberg is ranked at #9 and Perez at #3? I thought there wasn’t as vast a difference in their performances as mentioned, and it was Perez’s tyre conservation skills that again got him a couple of high finishes.
Although Perez did have standout performances in Russia and US, his podium was something he lucked in to, as compared to previous seasons, where he has actually earned them.
Honestly, I thought Grosjean was better than Perez this season.
petebaldwin (@)
18th December 2015, 10:09
@todfod – Yeah but you are judging the drivers on attributes that were relevant to old-F1. Driving the car fast, overtaking, pushing to the limits etc. These are old skills that aren’t really that important in modern day F1.
Keeping the tyres at the “optimum temperature”, conserving fuel, following team instructions, obtaining sponsors, saying “for sure” in interviews…. This is the skillset you need these days and Sergio has shown that he is very good at it.
If you took the drivers we have now and put them in a 90s F1 car, I think we’d have a completely different order to what we have now.
mantresx (@mantresx)
17th December 2015, 13:21
Even ignoring the B spec car and the fact that he beat Hulk, one can see how he’s reached a new level of maturity and racecraft, just compare his driving in Canada 2014 (crashing with Massa) with Sochi 2015, in both occasions he was being overtaken for a podium and yet in Russia he knew when to back down and take the most of what was available, same for Brazil and that brilliant pass by Verstappen a 2011-13 Pérez would’ve made a mess of it I’m sure.
And the way he handled the enormous pressure of his home race was truly remarkable, a small sign that if he’s ever in a position to win races or even fight for a championship he will keep his head down and perfom.
All this comes with experience of course, after 5 seasons in F1 he knows exactly what he needs from the car to get the best result possible: one weekend could be outright pace, the other could be making the tyres last, etc and with the B spec version he was finally given the tools to achieve that.
Henrik
17th December 2015, 20:04
And had, say, Button and Alonso like Perez been given the tools to do the job? No way any of the drivers rated ahead of the McLaren duo are significantly better or did a better job to justify these rankings. They can only be taken as a bit of end-of-season fun. “Aaargh! GP2 engine! GP2 engine!”
Sander (@)
17th December 2015, 13:25
Lost qualifying battle, lost the race battle and only close to 1/3 of the laps lead does not sound like a #3 to me. Force India’s B spec was probably the 3rd best car on the grid by the end of the season, both drivers failed to capitalize on it enough.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th December 2015, 16:43
@rossotoro
According to the data it was the third-quickest car in Abu Dhabi alone, behind the Mercedes and Ferraris.
Perez qualified fourth, behind two Mercedes and a Ferrari, and finished fifth, behind the Mercedes and Ferraris.
Viktor
19th December 2015, 17:56
TRUE!
Last Race, Force India Probably Future Posibilities on 2016!
gdewilde (@gdewilde)
17th December 2015, 13:25
In my opinion you are not a worthy #3 driver of the year if you finish only 9th in the championship, just ahead of your teammate in a car that was pretty darn fast near the end of the season. Certainly not if that same team-mate had 5 retirements + 1 ‘did not start’ compared to Sergio’s 1 retirement.
Also, his moment of glory, the podium, was effectively because 2 competitors in front of him collided at the very end of the race. A deserving podium, but this had nothing to do with Perez’ driving abilities this year = shouldn’t help the justification of his #3 in this list.
Sorry, but I just don’t agree with this one
Johannes (@johanness)
17th December 2015, 14:17
Exactly. Let’s reward mediocrity or a ‘fortuitous’ finish. So what he punched above his weight at times? He came in NINTH and is THIRD on your list?
And then Keith woke up.
mike
18th December 2015, 5:58
I think that argument is not the right one. It’d be better to show which races specifically you thought he didn’t get the most out of his car.
RaceProUK (@)
17th December 2015, 15:32
You do know these rankings are based on how well the driver did with the equipment they had available, and not on championship position, right?
Johannes (@johanness)
18th December 2015, 7:35
Pointing out the obvious, yet again? You like to hear yourself talk – I get it.
Paul Villanueva
17th December 2015, 16:26
Lucky podium? There’s not such thing..
To take advantage of Valteri and Kimi’s incident, he had to be fifth, position he had almos the hole race, and fifht in a force india, with at least 8 cars better than yours. So explain to me, why Verstappen or Hulk didnt have that luck?
gdewilde (@gdewilde)
17th December 2015, 19:11
8 cars better? enlighten me, please. In terms of performance (based on an earlier article about car performance) they were the 4th best car in Russia, behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Williams. they started 6th and 7th
Hamilton, Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen were ahead, Rosberg and Hulkenberg were out. So Massa was the only car behind him which performed better in that race and he started frickin’ 15th on the grid!
You must be joking right?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th December 2015, 16:44
@gdewilde So who would you have placed in front of him?
gdewilde (@gdewilde)
17th December 2015, 18:59
@keithcollantine
Ahead:
1) Verstappen – For having an immediate impact as a rookie and for scoring some great results as a rookie in a car, which was -based on the car performance list you posted – about the same quality as the Force India when they got their second chassis (and boy, that Renault engine was still soooo bad)
2) Rosberg – For pulling himself out of a slump and finishing the season beating Hamilton over and over and over (Ok, the championship was finished, but Hamilton was pushing for the win in everyone of those races, Rosberg was just better in the end).
About the same ranking:
3)+4) Bottas and Massa: Very similair season, the car was better than the Force India, but they scored a lot more points and both had a pair of 3th places + 3x a forth place.
It’s a matter of opinion, I guess ;-)
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
17th December 2015, 13:34
You summ it up niceley with “nothing he could have done better”
But hard to judge. And he was behind teammate who is way down the order. I think Perez skills give him ability to extract lucky podiums maybe even a win for SFI.
He is a bit of a rainmaker, kind of like Vettel, but with car he had.. Nowhere near victory. #4 would be more appropriate but #3 is just fine.
Paul Villanueva
17th December 2015, 15:54
Explain to me how a Podium in a force India is a matter of luck please. How is ti that Hulk had never had that luck???
mike
18th December 2015, 6:20
Well, that’s easy. Go and look at those races, it just so happens that when the car and opportunity were both up for it, Perez had the better race. Whether that was him being faster or misfortune or mistakes for Hulkenburg depends on the race.
OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
17th December 2015, 13:50
I think Perez should thank McLaren for firing him. He has gained experience and has also kept delivering podiums, even if this last one was more luck than punching through the field.
Patrick (@paeschli)
17th December 2015, 16:42
Being sacked by McLaren was the best thing that happened to him. He quit Sauber before they started going downhill and moved to a better team by going from McLaren to Force India.
Héctor HP
21st December 2015, 23:49
+1
hahostolze (@hahostolze)
17th December 2015, 14:00
Considering your ranking of him in the first half of the season, your headline is hilarious.
HK (@me4me)
17th December 2015, 21:21
@hahostolze, I hadn’t thought of that, but you are right. The expression you are only as good as your last race seem to be applied here, rather than a full-season ranking.
markp
17th December 2015, 14:37
‘I think Perez skills give him ability to extract lucky podiums maybe even a win for SFI.’
So his skills make him lucky = his skills make him achieve very good results, might as well say every great driver in history was lucky they only won because they had the skills.
Paul Villanueva
17th December 2015, 16:29
+1
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th December 2015, 16:45
Who are you quoting there?
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
17th December 2015, 17:32
@jureo, @keithcollantine, two comments above.
ColdFly F1 (@)
17th December 2015, 14:46
Good year for Perez in 2015, but I did not rate him as a Rosberg-killer, Ricciardo-killer, or Verstappen-killer on my list.
And I’m not inclined to change that after reading the above review of his performance!
theferret (@theferret)
17th December 2015, 15:17
Agree that Perez had a great year. His best year. But he really wasn’t substantially better than Hulk. They are very evenly matched. A couple of drive which gave Perez huge points in comparison to Hulk should not mislead the audience. Frankly, Hulk was better over the first half of the season, and Perez was better over the second half.
Hulk stupidly threw away good results like Malaysia when he was ahead, Canada when he was ahead, Singapore when he was ahead, and Russia when he could perhaps have taken that podium himself, and was plain unlucky with USA and Hungary. He also couldn’t start in Belgium. Perez was unlucky with Mexico when he was ahead and Japan in the first corner.
Off the top of my head, Hulk was vastly quicker in Austria and Brazil, Perez in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi.
ILuvSoundtracks (@)
17th December 2015, 15:32
Whoa man. Who would believe that?
Atticus (@atticus-2)
17th December 2015, 15:44
I still don’t understand, @keithcollantine.
The review highlights Bahrain and Monaco from his first half to vindicate his ranking, yet it was only the Sakhir race and two qualis where he had better raw pace than Hulkenberg in the entire first half of the season (mirrored by Hulkenberg having the upper hand speed-wise in Austin and Interlagos in the second half). In Monaco, Hulkenberg actually showed better race pace than him with a damaged car after being tapped into a spin on lap 1 by Alonso (both he and Perez had clean air for large portions of the race). His combined sectors that weekend were also better on Saturday – he just made a mistake, hence his midfield scrap. Mistake-wise, Perez messed up quali in Barcelona, Spielberg and Silverstone added up to his early season mishaps (mirroring Hulkenberg errors in Singapore, Sochi and Austin in the second half). Results, of course, vary, but mostly due to outside circumstances.
So why on Earth is Perez #3 and Hulkenberg #9. Please refute my arguments and present yours.
Paul Villanueva
17th December 2015, 16:14
Performance in any sport are mesured by results, not by what could had happened.
Its all about results, is it so hard to understand? Making solid races but failing completing them, means and values Nothing. Nothing for the championship, nothing for the teams.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th December 2015, 16:47
That’s completely fair but just because I can’t give Hulkenberg credit for a drive he wasn’t able to do doesn’t mean I should refrain from praising Perez for a job well done. And you can’t ignore the fact that Hulkenberg was in a position where Alonso could hit him because he qualified four places behind Perez.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
17th December 2015, 18:30
Of course not, he made about as much mistakes early season as Perez – once again something they have been level on.
In fact the Hulkenberg article is pretty well-balanced in alluding to the above and also noting that the Hulk did have about as many excellent drives during the first half of the season as Perez during the second – I wonder if we asked someone, who is without prior knowledge of the rankings themselves, to read the two articles about the Force India drivers and rank them, would he rank them this far apart?
Make no mistake, I also consider Perez’s season to be better – even considering the further qualifying mishaps I mentioned earlier, he seemed to make less high-profile errors in general and delivered under bigger pressure when there were more points on the table than when Hulkenberg shone. I’d put about one or two drivers between them (compared to the none I first indicated on the forums, you won me over by that much).
WheelToWheel (@lolzerbob)
17th December 2015, 17:34
In Monaco, Perez qualified six places ahead of Hulkenberg and in the race was mainly trying to save his tyres as he didn’t need to push. You mentioned that he made a mistake in quali in Spain, but why did you not mention that Perez finished a long way up the road in the race.
A S (@aminsarur)
17th December 2015, 16:50
Amazing season for Peréz, proving to be an excellent driver within th most discussed scenarios among fans: dominating a bad car and taking advantage of a capable car and put in the shade a very very competitive teammate, ranked as a top driver by almost everyone
Well deserved, and looking forward for an even better 2016 for him.
roodda (@roodda)
17th December 2015, 16:56
Perez deserves to be ranked third. His performances in the second half of the season in particular were nothing short of stunning. Qualifying and race at Spa, Sochi podium (pulling a classic Perez and nursing his tyres but not driving at a Manor-like pace), keeping his nose clean in a chaotic Austin for P5 and extracting the maximum out of his car at Abu Dhabi. He has matured a lot this year. I think the 2013-14 Perez would have tangled in the dying stages in Sochi (a la Canada 2014) and perhaps with Verstappen in Brazil.
He scored 20 more points than Hulkenberg and finished P9 (his best) in the championship, in the 5th best car. Let’s hope he can take more steps in 2016.
Rodney
17th December 2015, 17:18
I’ve been on this site since 2007 and every year the journalistic standards are dropping. This ranking is a new low. Keith has completed his transformation from an open minded enthusiastic young writer to a close minded opinionated old man who clings on stubbornly to ridiculous beliefs.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th December 2015, 18:32
I’ve given my reasons why I believe Perez deserves praise. I don’t see how that constitutes closed-mindedness – if anything I would suggest ranking a driver who I have previously rated lower than this is the opposite.
You in return have not said why you do not feel Perez deserves this praise, nor why any of his rivals should be thought of more highly, nor offered the name of a single driver who you thought did better.
But nevertheless, thanks for posting what appears to be your first ever comment in what you claim is an eight-year spell of reading F1 Fanatic, merely to tell me what a bad job I’m doing. Season of goodwill and all that.
WheelToWheel (@lolzerbob)
17th December 2015, 20:11
Why doesn’t everybody just give him a break, it is a very good ranking in my opinion and it’s just a bit of fun too.
Illusive (@illusive)
18th December 2015, 6:27
You do realize this website is a blog right.
drrapg (@drrapg)
17th December 2015, 17:19
I still don’t have enough F1 knowledge to make such a good arguments like most of you do, however, I’ve been following Checo since his move to McLaren and all I can say is that he has matured a lot and now I see a more humble, focused driver, enjoying his time in F1 and I can also see his talents growing stronger.
I don’t know if 3rd is right or not, and honestly I do not care, I’m thrilled to see how much he was able to change everybody’s mind since McLaren’s fiasco, because nobody here can argue that he is at his best right now.
I’m really looking forward to see how far can he go and how much better can he get, and hopefully he can get one day a seat in a top team (a real one)
Retired (@jeff1s)
17th December 2015, 17:59
Whether or not he’s deserved the third spot here is just subjective, by the way he did all he can to prove it.
Perez is still young and has the experience of a top team, he once was a Ferrari protege too, but the way he dealt with pressure at his home race is another exemple of his maturity.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
17th December 2015, 18:14
It is subjective weather he ranks top 3 or top 5, but overall top driver there about.
PorscheF1 (@xtwl)
17th December 2015, 18:28
I’m pretty sure there is a FIA season review title that fits what I think of Perez after this season.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
17th December 2015, 22:14
@xtwl Lighting Up The Tarmac and all that, yeah. :D
caci99
17th December 2015, 19:07
Sorry but this is the worst subjective rating I have seen on this blog, also maybe the only one. How can be Perez ranked third while his team mate is ranked ninth? His team mate has beaten Perez on pol