McLaren to ‘calm down’ Perez

After a number of incidents since switching from Sauber to McLaren, Sergio Perez’s aggressive driving style has come under scrutiny.

The 23-year-old Mexican’s driving style is a joy to watch for pure racers, he’s always aggressive and always on the attack a style of driving that wins fans and angers rivals.

Perez has born witness to that this season, he’s been involved in incidents with the likes of Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button.

While racing with his new McLaren team-mate recently Button got on the team radio to ask his team to ‘calm him down’. With the 2009 Formula One World Champion clearly rattled by his new team-mate.

That request looks likely to happen now following another in race penalty for Perez.

During the Belgian Grand Prix, Perez was penalised with a drive through penalty for forcing Lotus’ Romain Grosjean off the track after completing an overtaking manoeuvre on the Frenchman.

It’s rather ironic that it happened with Grosjean as he himself has been guilty of not giving the other car enough room after completing a pass.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes the decision was harsh and Perez was only penalised due to his recent reputation for his aggressive style.

But the team boss also believes that Perez does need to adjust his style to counteract the critics.

‘Inevitably, what drivers do when a young charger comes up, is that in drivers’ briefings the experienced guys do try to gang up and create an environment where they are under some scrutiny,’ Whitmarsh said to the BBC.

‘He’s got to adjust that, I don’t think [the manoeuvre at Spa] was that bad but on the other hand he was past, he could have given him another half a metre and he would have been clean and away.

‘You can see he is looking over at the corner ahead of him. It’s not deliberate but when you’re in his position you’ve got to be careful. When you’re under a bit of scrutiny you’ve got to watch it.’