Originally Posted by philipbain
I don't understand why people are so quick to rubbish Maldonado, after all, he won the GP2 title before graduating to F1 and won a race, in a Williams! True, the planets might have aligned for Maldonado's win in Spain, but if you win a GP in a car that is not the quickest on the grid then this is usually the case anyhow but IMO you can't win a GP and not be a decent driver. Yes, he has backing which has undoubtedly eased his way to F1 but without talent he wouldn't even be on the grid.
Same goes with Massa, yes, he has underperformed against Alonso, but I feel that if you put the rest of the drivers in F1 against Alonso in the same team that few would do as well, perhaps only Raikonnen, Vettel and Hamilton could live with that sort of pace, add in the factor that IMO Alonso is the most complete driver on the grid (combining experience, dependability, race craft and pace) and even they would struggle over the balance of an entire season, as we will undoubtedly see when Raikonnen re-joins Ferrari next season. I wish Massa all the best at Williams, lets hope his knowledge and experience can make him a good team leader as Williams starts a new Mercedes powered post-Coughlan era.
As for Perez and McLaren, I think McLaren have come to realise something that I suspected all along, that he was somewhat flattered by a 2012 Sauber that punched above it's weight, the fact that he wasnt definitively superior over Kobayashi (a competent and entertaining battler of a driver but certainly not a top team talent) is what did it for me, I remember thinking at the time that McLaren signed him that it could be a massive mis-step, however I was hoping for Sergio's sake that being in a McLaren would perhaps take his driving to the next level. Unfortunately McLaren's car this season has been uncompetitive which made a difficult task near enough impossible, F1 isnt very forgiving at the best of times and ultimately McLaren are looking into the medium to long term and rightly believe that Magnussen is a potential star.
As for how all this will shake out, Perez back to Sauber seems logical, the Mexican sponsors will certainly want that. As for Maldonado, it isnt clear where he'll end up, Lotus have had the green light from thier new investor to sign Hulkenburg and Grosjean has been more or less confirmed and richly deserves the seat, for me he is the most improved driver of 2013. That leaves Force India as the most desirable destination for Maldonado, with Caterham another possibility, though their lack of competitiveness is likely to be an issue as Pastor publically said he would rather not compete than be uncompetitive. Intreresting times indeed in the F1 driver market.