Perez is an idiot (and no Michael Schumacher)

Exactly my thoughts. from David Coulthard:

"Contrast the behaviour of Webber and Hamilton in that incident with the way McLaren's Sergio Perez drove. He was like the man at the Casino - winning, winning, winning, thinking he was invincible, and then it all goes wrong.

On one level, Perez was making great moves. But in his pass on Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and attempt to overtake Kimi Raikkonen's Lotus he was taking advantage of people who were fighting for the championship, which Perez isn't.

He wants to show he is a racer but he was taking on those who know they need points at every race to stay in the battle for the championship, so in many ways it wasn't a fair fight.

When he finally collided with Raikkonen, the Lotus was in the middle of the road and carried on moving over to defend. It should have been clear to Perez there was no way through. You can argue that the only way that would have come off was if Raikkonen then moved away like the others did. Perez needed compliant people for the passes to work.

It's the same philosophy Michael Schumacher used to use - Michael would barrel down the inside, effectively saying: "I will pass you or we will crash." More often than not, people would move over. But not everyone races like that.

Perez will get away with it for so long and be the hero but eventually he will come undone - as he did in Monaco because Raikkonen didn't want to play the game.

I don't want to say Perez was wrong, but any one of the overtakes prior to that could have been exactly the same if the other drivers had done what Kimi decided to do.

In Alonso's case, Fernando could have made the chicane, but decided to slightly cut it to avoid hitting Perez. Which is why I think it was harsh to make Alonso give the place back afterwards."

Yeah the first time he did it on Button it was pretty spectacular. But from then on he was barely making the chicane at all and pushing his luck. I think in the end Raikkonen had enough of him and tried to squeeze him. Would have been fun to see him go full Nascar on Perez

ROFL. "Full NASCAR" I'll have to remember that one. Funny as shit.

This is why I have so much respect for Raikkonen. He would rather give up his points that give up his position to a bully. I've seen Raikkonen pass plenty of people, and even run side by side with thm through a few turns, but rarely if ever would he have done something like that.

We know from driving that track that what Coulthard said -- "When he finally collided with Raikkonen, the Lotus was in the middle of the road and carried on moving over to defend" is being a bit TOO nice to Perez.

In fact, Raikkonen had nowhere to go in order not to cut that chicane and have the same thing that happened to poor Alonso happen to him (made to give up a position to a friggin' idiot). The fact that Raikkonen tore the brake duct off of Perez's right front gives you a good idea of what sort of position Perez had (none).

And in fact, according to the FIA radio log, Perez had done the same thing to Kimi on a prior lap:

Kimi Raikkonen to Mark Slade: (Perez tried to pass Raikkonen at the chicane on lap 53 but ran wide, forcing both to cut the corner.) "That idiot would have crashed into me if I wouldn’t have gone straight."
Mark Slade to Kimi Raikkonen: "Understood Kimi."

And of all places? Monaco? Come on....

So both drivers end up getting screwed and the FIA does nothing. However, I'd have loved to have heard Raikkonen's real radio transmission after the incident!

On another note, here is an interesting exchange between Vettel and his engineer, on the last lap:
Guillaume Rocquelin to Sebastian Vettel: Sebastian you know the score, don’t take any risks.
Guillaume Rocquelin to Sebastian Vettel: Alright, that’s enough. You’re not getting any more points for that.
Sebastian Vettel to Guillaume Rocquelin: But satisfaction rather than going slow for 77 laps.
Guillaume Rocquelin to Sebastian Vettel: There’s no satisfaction for us in that one though. You might enjoy yourself, we don’t like it.
Sebastian Vettel to Guillaume Rocquelin: Let’s discuss this after the race.

I take it that was vettel's conversation about him setting the fastest lap of the race with one lap left

Yea. Show off...

Another example of a lack of respect for his team! Anyone in the field could have put in a realy fast lap, but was it worth taking the risk on a circuit that will severely punish the simplest of mistakes? Another example of his childish petulance! But unfortunately Red Bull on the outside don"t eem to be doing anything about it.

Perez... all other drivers were driving with respect and maturitty - if Perez wants tp drive the way he did he should perhaps look for a GP2 seat.

Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta showed how to overtake at Monaco properly! No contact, no forcing the other driver to have to cut a corner, no ruining anyone elses race!

Yea, those are class guys, Di Resta and Sutil. Van Der Garde showed some spark too, but we knew he would improve once he got to Europe.

Still have to disagree with you about Sebastian. I would much rather have a thoroughbred that is hard to tame than a pony that is easy to ride if my goal is to win races. Vettel's only "recklessness" if you want to call it that, comes from giving the team a big F-U sometimes, just like Kimi. It's the age old debate over which is better, the pure talent that is recalcitrant sometimes or the methodical technical driver who inspires no passion. Schumacher vs. Mansell; Prost vs. Senna; Hunt vs. Lauda. On and on.

Oh yea, can't wait for that movie. Watched "Senna" last night. It was great.

Maybe, but over here we don't like domination and he's certainly dominating at the moment so it's hard to like him and his arrogance!!!

I just don't see the arrogance. No more than any other driver. He's well respected by the other drivers for being clean and has a great sense of humor (for a German). I guess some see arrogance, and I see competitiveness and fire. Now, Schumacher was dominant and arrogant. Still is, but not the over the top snotty kind. Kind of aloof with not much humor.

We have to remember Perez is very young and fiery give it a season or 2 once he has had the edge knocked off him so to speak and McLaren has had the time to smooth his rough edges I think hel be a great racer. You only have to look back at a few things he did last season in a poor car to know hes talented. Lets be honest McLaren haven't made very many bad driver decisions over the years. I have to say yes he has frustrated me a little at times but I still believe in time as long as he keeps his nose clean and works hard with McLaren and what they ask him to do he will be an asset to F1. Also it was always going to take him a little while to settle in the McLaren as it is not only a hugely different car the whole team is very different to what he had got used to but they will give him all the help they can.

As of Seb I do see him as arrogant as I used to see Schumey the same way, that being said he is certainly a quality driver but I think wel really see how good he is when he steps into a car that isn't as good as that is what made Schumey really stand out because he won many many races without the best car. At the end of the day drivers are employees of the team and to me the whole multi 21 thing showed me that Seb doesn't car about what the team wants he has bigger ideas about himself. Now thats all well and good but 1 day at some point a team needs to use both cars in different ways during practice or whatever to gain different info and when you do something like he did how willing will his team mate be to share or work to help him win for the good of the team. Inter team driver relationships are huge in F1 and he is certainly overlooking that fact in my opinion at the moment. No F1 team produces the best car every year so you need your team mate on side to a degree at some point. I meen I would love to see how he would handle a situation like Button found himself in through no fault of his own at BAR some years back. We are also seeing how Hamilton is finding some of this out being the big money earner at Mercedes yet being out performed regularly by Mr Rosberg who in my opinion is a very under rated driver.

"Mark is too slow, get him out of the way,"

Great team mate!

"Mark is too slow, get him out of the way,"
Great Driver
"Leave me alone, I know what I'm doing"
Great Driver

There is always a push and pull to F1 because of the Constructors battle. That's what makes the sport unique and special, along with its other attributes. That being said, a driver is hired to do one thing...drive fast while playing fair and not crashing. Of course, he is expected to help the other teammate to a degree, but really a driver is limited in that role. That's really the team's role/decision as to what info the two cars share and how much they cooperate. The better teams do it better, more smoothly, etc. I agree Vettel's ego may have gotten the best of him in the mult-21 fiasco, but all drivers should have that inner fire. All great drivers do.

And I hear you on the claim about Vettel having the "fastest car" as Hamilton has been whining about that for years. (For the record, I don't include Hamilton in the "great driver" list but like him anyway, even if he is a big crybaby). But how does that explain this:

2013(*part), 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 (WDC)
Webber = #5*, 6, 3, 3, 4
Vettel = # 1*, 1, 1, 1, 2

Bad Car? Different car? Team doesn't want to finish 1 & 2? Bad engineers for Webber?

I don't think there is one, except for the fact that Vettel is a great driver.

P.S. - Del, Rosberg is my 2nd fave behind Kimi. I agree with you 100%. But I'm not sure he has that "extra something" that Kimi, Alonso, Vettel, etc. have.