Originally Posted by Robinho
I don't buy the massive gulf to Jenson thing. Jenson is definatley not as fast in qually 9 times out of 10, if the car is right they are very close, Lewis is undeniabley better at extracting the max from the car in less than perfect trim. But in races, save for a few in the mid season where Jenson and his engineers went down a setup blind alley, Jenson has been every bit the match of Lewis. It was nothing to do with him modifying his driving style in Germany, it was McLaren setting the car up more like earlier in the year. One thing that does flatter Jenson slightly at the moment is that it is possible to have successful races without outright pole winning qually speed, but to state he is nowhere near the class of Lewis is just false. 2010, 11 and 12 have shown them to be very evenly matched teammates. I do think Lewis is the better allrounder, but I don't think his is that far ahead, and on many occasions Jenson has equalled or bettered Lewis.
The jury is definatley out on Perez, he has had some good results and he definatley has some speed, but if he can translate that into results in a top car we will have to wait and see, in the emantime Jenson will provide a more than decent team leader, and whislt the line up may not be as strong as it has been for the last 3 years I don't think they will suffer hugely. Not as much as Lewis may do if Merc are concentrating on 2014 rather than 2013