Is Sergio Perez or Nico Hulkenberg More Attractive to Top F1 Teams?
Sergio Perez may bring a hefty amount of sponsorship money with him wherever he goes in Formula One, but he is no ordinary pay driver, clinging to his seat thanks to a wealthy benefactor or Venezuelan oil company.
Perez's third-place finish last Sunday at the Russian Grand Prix only served as an exclamation point on the last two seasons, where he has often matched—and at times outperformed—his more heralded team-mate, Nico Hulkenberg.
The German earned plenty of praise (and rightly so) for his triumph earlier this year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it is Perez who has come through with the headline-grabbing results in F1 during their shared time at Force India.
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Yes, Hulkenberg has outscored Perez 134 to 113 since the start of 2014, but Perez has brought home the second and third podiums in the team's history.
As much talent as Hulkenberg has, Perez is the driver developing the reputation for delivering the big results.
In Montreal last year, Hulkenberg said he wasn't thinking as much about a top-three finish as all the journalists who kept asking him about it appeared to be. But, despite his protestations, it must frustrate him.
That is especially true of the race in Sochi where it very well could have been him in Perez's position, had he not thrown away a brilliant sixth-place qualifying performance with an unforced error, spinning at Turn 2.
That kind of mistake is uncharacteristic of Hulkenberg, but he also made a clumsy move in Singapore, running into Felipe Massa as the Brazilian exited the pits. The collision cost Hulkenberg three grid places in Japan (where he still managed to finish sixth).
Are these recent errors perhaps the mark of a discouraged driver pushing too hard?
After the Russian race, per a team press release, Hulkenberg said:
"I didn't have the best of starts, but then I was able to pick the ideal line on the approach to turn two. Unfortunately, I locked the rears going into turn two and, when that happens, you just end up in a spin. I hoped the whole field would get past without hitting me but unfortunately [Marcus] Ericsson got stuck with me and I couldn't move away.
"
Meanwhile, Perez once again showed his skill for keeping tyres alive, pitting early under the safety car and running a 40-lap stint at the end of the race (with an assist from Kimi Raikkonen punting Valtteri Bottas off the track) on his way to a podium hug from Russian president Vladimir Putin.
At the post-race press conference, Perez described his approach to the race and particularly the final laps as his tyres were fading, showing impressive maturity in his willingness to trade a potential podium for solid points:
"From where we are it’s difficult to realise but people who look at my performance, they can see that I’m at my best moment in my career and that’s something that makes me confident.
[...]
The restart going behind Felipe [Massa] and [Felipe] Nasr, I was just stuck there and couldn’t get them so I decided to save my tyres together with the team, to look after them at the end of the race and it worked really well and I think we lost a podium one lap before the end but it was just very difficult to hold them back, to hold Valtteri and Raikkonen back.
At the stage that my tyres were, I couldn’t brake very hard, very late because I was at risk of flat-spotting my tyres and retiring from the race, so there was a certain level of risk that I was able to take and I thought OK, if it’s not a podium, let’s really come back with the points and then in the last lap they had contact.
"
In 2012, Perez used similar tactics to find the podium three times for Sauber, including a near-victory in Malaysia. The following year, Hulkenberg moved to the Swiss team and, in a less competitive car, could manage no higher than fourth place, in Belgium.
The next year, Perez moved to McLaren, where he showed an exhilarating willingness to battle on the race track, even with his former world champion team-mate, Jenson Button.
Unfortunately, he was unceremoniously dumped by McLaren at the end of the year to make room for Kevin Magnussen, but Perez's skill (and Mexican millions) helped him find a soft landing spot at Force India.
He revealed earlier this year, per ESPN F1's Nate Saunders, that he actually could have ended up at Ferrari, had he not taken the McLaren seat in 2013. Coincidentally, Hulkenberg also just missed out on that Ferrari drive for 2014.
The prospects of either driver receiving an opportunity like that again appear increasingly remote, as the likes of Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen overtake them on the top teams' wishlists, but Perez is in the midst of what will likely be his best-ever season in terms of points scored and placing in the drivers' championship.
He also appears set to be the first team-mate to beat Hulkenberg since the German's rookie season at Williams with Rubens Barrichello.
Both men are already confirmed at Force India for 2016, but if one of them is going to eventually secure a move up the grid, will Perez's podiums and sponsorship money top Hulkenberg's consistency?
Last year, my answer would have been, "No way!" Now, I'm not so sure.
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