All the speculation surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s future has ended with the Briton signing a three year contract with AMG Mercedes as BBC pundit and former team owner Eddie Jordan predicted a few weeks ago. But the more exciting prospect for me is the news that Sauber’s Sergio Perez will be moving to McLaren for 2013; I can’t find any information about the length of Perez’ contract, but I suspect it might be one year with an option of additional years based upon performance.
As I wrote a few weeks ago; I believe that a move to Mercedes is not Hamilton’s best option for winning world drivers titles, but it’s for sure the best way to maximise his earning potential. I have to say that I am interested to see a direct comparison between Rosberg, who won the GP2 championship in 2005 and Hamilton, who won the GP2 championship in 2006. On paper they should be pretty equal, but if Hamilton does actually have #1 status; that’ll negate at real competition!
These movements bring up some new questions, who will take the vacant spot at Sauber? I am hoping that Esteban Gutierrez will get promoted to the vacant race seat, he looked pretty impressive in the GP2 series this season. The other question is what will Michael Schumacher do now that his race seat has been taken by Hamilton? I’ve heard some rumours that Schumacher will replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari for one year before Sebastian Vettel moves to Maranello in 2014. But that is unlikely because I believe that Vettel is contracted to Red Bull until the end of 2014.
Going back to Perez, I really can’t wait for next season to see what he can do in a top car; the Mexican has scored two second place finishes and a third place finish this season in what has to be considered a midfield car, you’d have to mark him as a potential world champion in a McLaren.
I’m not sure whether Perez’ future stablemate Jenson Button is looking forward to working with the Mexican or not, the Briton said “Two people who have experience are better than one because there will be days when you go in a direction when your set-up doesn’t work and his does, that works for both so you definitely want someone with experience. You don’t want a newcomer stepping into the car.“; which suggests to me that Button isn’t confident in his own set-up ability!
In the very same interview, Button also praised his future team mate saying “He might be [inexperienced] but I think he [Perez] is a quick learner, A guy who can look after his tyres as well as he does is not stupid. He learns well. I don’t know what he is like setting up a car but he can’t be bad if he is doing as well as he is. But maybe if you had an experienced driver in the car it would be even quicker.” – Two very contradictory statements wouldn’t you say? is Jenson rattled by Perez?
What’s more likely, as usually happens, drivers are asked questions by the press and then selective soundbites are taken from the answers to make the article seem more sensational than they really are; I always take what I read on websites, magazines and papers with a pinch of salt!