Perez told by Ferrari to “take care of Alonso” in 2012?
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Apparently, Sergio Perez has told Spanish newspaper Marca that he was asked by Ferrari to “take care of Alonso” in 2012. The only English source I can find is here:
Sergio Perez has claimed that, whilst a Sauber driver, Ferrari often asked him to “take care” of Fernando Alonso.
The Mexican’s comments will ramp up speculation that the famous Italian team uses its political links in the paddock for a performance advantage.
Perez, formerly under Ferrari power at Sauber and also the cream of the Maranello marque’s driver development ‘academy’, suddenly switched allegiances for 2013 as he accepted the offer to replace Lewis Hamilton at McLaren.
He had been asked by Spanish sports newspaper Marca if he feels a difference when he looks in the mirror and sees world champion Sebastian Vettel, or Ferrari’s Alonso.
“In my case no,” he answered. “I make no distinction between them.
“Last year, when I was communicating with Ferrari, they often asked me to take care of Alonso, but I don’t know if they asked just me or the whole grid.”
Asked if he sees leaving the Ferrari family as a missed opportunity, the 23-year-old answered: “No, it’s an experience that led me to a better place.”
Assuming this is accurate, this isn’t the first time that a former Sauber driver has claimed that Ferrari (who have traditionally supplied engines to the team) have asked them to give one of their drivers special treatment on track. After he held up Jacques Villeneuve at Jerez 1997, former Sauber driver Norberto Fontana later claimed that he had been asked to do so by Ferrari.
@magnificent-geoffrey Do you have the link to the original article by Marca?
A timely revelation (assuming it’s true) given it’s the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend:
Was Sauber’s radio message to Perez a team order to help Ferrari?
Here’s the original:
http://www.marca.com/2013/03/17/motor/formula1/1363533816.html
It’s happened before. Fontana said the same thing about Ferrari and Sauber http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/54581
I’m loosing respect for ALonso, especially given in Melbourne, Mass out-qualiied him and was ahead after the first 2 stints; they then pit Massa first getting him stuck in traffic when he was on the radio screaming “keep me out”; Alonso stays out in clear air for a few laps, the pits and comes out ahed. ALonso cant beat a oompetitive team-mate like Hamilton, and when Massa finally out performs him, the team get Alonso ahead again, and now this perez story,jeez who doesnt help this guy, I just dont see how you can call him the “best on the grid”, when his team mate is not allowed to beat him. Thats why in my books Hamilton and Vettel are better than ALonso, they both have team-mates who challenge them, sorry let me rephrase that, team-mates who are allowed to challenge them. This is supposed to be racing, i as an F1 fan want to see Mass and Alonso fight out fairly on track, not sly strategies to get Alonso ahead of Massa; pathetic!!!
@mclaren – I think you have the strategy the wrong way round!
Possible it can be true…and i don’t see nothing wrong since Perez was a driver of Ferrari Driver Academy, and Alonso is their primary driver.
If Ferrari has asked Perez to take care of Alonso, i can NOT even imagine what the Red Bull has asked to Toro rosso drivers to do in confront of Vettel.
The way Perez speaks it seems he is frustrated for the fact that Ferrari reject him, then the fact he is driving a Mclaren.
He should enjoy his new team and help them now that there are in trouble, instead of telling what he was doing one year ago.I have never seen Webber challenge Vettel since Turkey when they both took each other off. The team may say that they have even rights but clearly Vettel is number 1 in that team. As for Mclaren we will have to wait and see when Perez and Button get a competitive car to see who is the better of the two.
As for Ferrari, they always operate with a number 1 driver and then the team works behind him, since the days when Schumacher first started for them, look at all the drivers who helped him win 7 titles, Irvine, Barrichelo, etc etc.Just when Ferrari were starting to slowly claw their way up from the bottom of my expectations pit, something like this comes out…
@mrjames12 you really need to rewatch the start of the last Brazilian GP…
I’m loosing respect for ALonso, especially given in Melbourne, Mass out-qualiied him and was ahead after the first 2 stints; they then pit Massa first getting him stuck in traffic when he was on the radio screaming “keep me out”; Alonso stays out in clear air for a few laps, the pits and comes out ahed. ALonso cant beat a oompetitive team-mate like Hamilton, and when Massa finally out performs him, the team get Alonso ahead again, and now this perez story,jeez who doesnt help this guy, I just dont see how you can call him the “best on the grid”, when his team mate is not allowed to beat him. Thats why in my books Hamilton and Vettel are better than ALonso, they both have team-mates who challenge them, sorry let me rephrase that, team-mates who are allowed to challenge them. This is supposed to be racing, i as an F1 fan want to see Mass and Alonso fight out fairly on track, not sly strategies to get Alonso ahead of Massa; pathetic!!!
This has got to be the dumbest comment I have ever read in this site….. Who cares if Massa out qualified him??? he beat him bad last year 17-2…. In race pace, Massa held up Alonso whilst Vettel raced off…. Alonso would have caught Vettel… In a team there are 2 different race engineers… one for each driver, meaning 2 different strategies. so if Smedley made the wrong call it´s his fault… He even told Massa, lets see what you can do with the lead and obviously failed to deliver.
Hamilton did beat him in qualy but not in points… so I fail to see how Hamilton beat Alonso.
And who is McLaren to talk about not favouring drivers…. McLaren are a bunch of hypocrites… They messed up Hamilton´s strategies in 2011 to favour Button… If it wasn´t a bad call, they messed his pit stops… all different ways to get one driver ahead of the other…
You talk crap about Alonso not being able to outperform Massa… did you see the race?? If it weren´t for Sutil, Van der Garde and the Marussia, Alonso would have hunted down Kimi… I mean seriously, you might be totally biased against Alonso but geez… think before you diss him… He´s not the fastest qualifier…. we all know that… but he can beat most on racecraft and strategy… so please…. GTHO with that comment man… And plus…. I really think Alonso could care less if one person loses respet for him…Oh and by the way… this news says as much about Ferrari as it does about Sauber for complying… Both are equally shameful… It´s the same thing as a person offering a bribe and the one who receives it… they both are guilty… So nice try @magnificent-geoffrey !
If Ferrari has asked Perez to take care of Alonso, i can NOT even imagine what the Red Bull has asked to Toro rosso drivers to do in confront of Vettel.
Oh for sure!!! Didn´t you see Abu Dahbi last year…. I think it was JEV that pulled over to one side when SV was behind him….
Seriously… people can be such cynics… This is as old as Formula 1 is… has always happened and will always happen so just deal with it…
If this causes such a storm… just because Perez said that ferrari asked them to take care of Alonso… why is it so hard to believe that LOTUS deliberately took out Alonso in Spa last year to “look after” Vettel??? After all Lotus WAS Renault…. same engine supplier for RBR. I could go on and on and on….. Nobody should throw a rock in the air if he has a glass roof over his house!@Catracho504 The article and Perez’s comments tell us nothing about whether he actually did anything to help “take care of Alonso” or not. We can only speculate on whether he did anything or if he just ignored them.
This could just be a rumour.. what isn’t though are toro rosso drivers taking care of Seb in every race this season. If you go as far as even blocking Vettel in an FP session, you could lose your Toro Rosso seat. Ask Jaime for details…
I dont believe this rumour is true… or even if it was true.. Perez definitely didn’t take Ferrari up on their offer. If he did take them up on ‘protecting’ ALonso, he did a pretty terrible job in Monza.
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