James1978 wrote:Perez is available and has money though. And he doesn't use his car as a weapon.
Whilst Perez does have some backing, against that it is worth bearing in mind that is partially offset by the fact that Perez's salary would be deducted from that sum.
eytl wrote:Even though I think Sam Michael's track record of far too often being involved in bad seasons for supposedly top teams makes me suspicious about what he has to say, I find this comment quite telling and even insightful, when asked about whether McLaren might regret not taking on Hulkenberg:
Sam Michael wrote:"I think you are putting too much emphasis on Nico himself. To be honest, I rate Nico - I was involved in his lower-category career and the start of his Formula 1 career. He's a great driver, but our focus has been internally with Kevin and that's where we've decided to go next year.
"When you mention football players who are 26 and 27 and are proven quantities, if you actually look at the grid, we already have a World Champion in one of our cars. Then you have the choice of trying to get another World Champion, and that's not possible at the moment, so then you have the choice of going down a route which you think will create another World Champion.
"You have to remember that on all of our Young Driver Programmes, they are there to produce World Champions. They are not there to produce also-rans because, quite frankly, McLaren has the buying ability to go and buy anyone we want on the grid in that situation. So therefore if you look at our programme critically, we believe that Kevin can be a World Champion - the same way that we believe Vandoorne can be and anyone who comes in behind him. If we don't, they don't stay on our programme - it's as brutal as that."
It suggests that there is some nagging doubt about whether Hulkenberg is the real deal or not. And when I think about it a bit more, I see the point. Even now, the suggestion that money aside he ought to be the obvious choice for Lotus or any other team looking for a driver seems to come from the fact that he is the "best of the rest", ie the best available driver not already locked into a top team. I guess that's probably how I'd rate Nico as well. What I haven't heard anyone say, for example, is "Put Hulkenberg alongside [insert name of driver in top team] and Nico would come out on top." So if there's not any raging confidence that Hulkenberg could beat, say, Button, Grosjean, Rosberg or Raikkonen, let alone Hamilton, Alonso, Vettel on equal terms, that's not exactly a sparkling commendation is it? In that case, why not gamble on a Magnussen or a Kvyat?
Of course there is the possibility that, with the upturn in form that Sauber has shown, one of Hulkenberg's strongest tracks in recent years (Interlagos) coming up and Button's prolonged slump in form, that Hulkenberg might well end up beating both McLaren drivers in the WDC - Hulkenberg is only 14 points behind Button after all.
Hulkenberg's status is rather odd in some ways, since he has had interest but no firm offers. He was highly rated in Autosport's private post 2012 poll of the team managers (making the top 6 IIRC), reportedly offers decent feedback and seems pretty adept with the press - which seems to be just what most team managers would want. He appears to have been as competitive in junior series as Grosjean, for example - he was paired with Grosjean in Formula 3 and, when you take into account Grosjean's greater experience, Hulkenberg was not that far behind him in the end - and also compared favourably against Rosberg when testing for Williams in the past, so his potential is probably comparable to those drivers at least.
Yet, despite all of that, as you say there does seem to be some resistance amongst the top teams to hiring Hulkenberg. OK, Hulkenberg was a bit hot headed at times whilst at Williams, but that was several years ago and he seems to have matured quite a bit, even if he hasn't pulled his punches when criticising Sauber over the radio in the earlier part of this season. I guess that it does seem as if Hulkenberg takes time to get going in some seasons - something that was common in junior series too, where his strongest performances tended to be towards the end of a season - suggesting that perhaps he isn't quite as quick as some to adapt to regulation changes.
Probably what happened was a real guy named Alendro Scerdi edited the page with himself to gain more pride. ROTY contender for hilarity, anyone?
