Sauber disqualification in the season opener could not overshadowed the Impressive performance by Sergio Perez and the tyre strategy used by him. Originally the Mexican Rookie driver finished in 7th position in his debut race. Perez finished the race with only 1 stop and showed other the way to handle the criticized Pirelli tyres.
Sergio Perez did enough on his Formula One debut to convince most observers that he has the potential to be a great star of the future.
Peter Sauber, himself no slouch in identifying future stars - having picked aces such as Finn Kimi Raikkonen and Brazilian Felipe Massa to race for his team as youngsters in the past.
Indeed, Sauber selected Raikkonen when most paddock regulars regarded him as a risk because he had not done enough miles to earn a super-licence. The Finn went on to win the world title with Ferrari - and veteran team boss Sauber obviously believes Perez could do the same.
[Sauber Team Boss - Peter Sauber]
Sauber Team boss, Peter Sauber, also says Rookie Sergio Perez surprised him in the Australian Grand Prix
Sauber said that the rookie has more than impressed the team by doing almost 40 laps on a single set of super-soft tyres.
"We followed him the last season in GP2 and he did a good job - and also during the pre-season tests we were happy with him - but in this Melbourne race he was outstanding. To drive more than 35 laps on used tyres like that, well, that is incredible."
(Perez was runner-up in the GP2 series last year - and now appears set to follow on from that success.)
Sauber’s duo, Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi, finished the race in the top ten positions. Perez was ahead of his experienced team-mate Kobayashi in seventh position and scored six points in his opening race. Both team-mates secured 10 points for the team but hours later they were disqualified from the race over technical infringement. The race Stewards examined their cars and found that their car’s rear wing was in violation of Formula 1 laws. Read the complete story here.
The Pirelli tyres were controversial at the start of the season and lots of driver’s feared that more pit stops would be needed during a race. Many drivers did three pit stops and only a few did two stop. But Perez was the only driver in the Australian Grand Prix who did only one-pit stop and completed almost 40 laps on a single set of Pirelli’s super-soft compound. Read the complete story here.
Talking about this performance, Sauber commented, “Thirty-five laps with used soft tyres, that is incredible. It was never a decision - it was absolutely clear to do a second or third stop.” Sauber further added that the race engineers talked with the driver and it was Perez’s decision to keep the tyres on for a full race distance. Although he did lose some race-speed at the end, he still was able to finish ahead of his team-mate Kobayashi and almost snagged some points for the team.
The next race of the 2011 season starts in Malaysia in less than a week and the Sauber team will have to start from zero points on the table.
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