Saying that Perez’s teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, is one of the three best F1 drivers currently on the grid is by no means a stretch of the imagination.
Perez insisted that Hulkenberg was also the strongest teammate he’s faced during his career, which is a huge compliment considering the fact that the Mexican also raced for McLaren in 2013 where he teamed up with Jenson Button.
Despite topping Perez during qualifying in each of the duo’s campaigns together, Hulkenberg finished this year 20 points behind his teammate and has yet to get on the podium.
Perez was recently quoted as saying that he’s learned a lot from Nico and that “I definitely would put him among the three best drivers on the grid. I believe if I can be ahead of him, I can be ahead of anyone on the grid.”
That is of course high praise, but would Perez have said the same things if he hadn’t finished the year ahead of Hulkenberg? In a sense, he’s complimenting himself as well – quite blatantly.
But we don’t mind. Both of them are amazing talents and Force India is lucky to have them. However, we would like to dig deeper into the premise that Hulkenberg is actually a top 3 F1 talent. First of all, if you automatically eliminate Lewis Hamilton (3-time champ) and Sebastian Vettel (4-time champ) because they’ve accomplished so much while Hulkenberg has yet to see a podium in his F1 career, you’re still left with a list of extremely powerful opponents.
You’ve got Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo already established as superstars, whereas young, up and coming drivers like Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen have plenty of talent themselves. Which one would you choose?
Story references: autosport
PHOTO GALLERY
