Yeah I think something has gone missing. Now Perez is depicted as an evil guy, who refuses to work with engineers and tells everyone to "**** off".
Bottom line is that Perez and McLaren just didn't fit together. Like Frentzen and Williams. But this is the fault of team's personnel policy and man-management. Before hiring Perez, he had been around in the paddock for almost two years already. They must have had at least some kind of an idea, what kind of person he is and how well does he suit into the team. It is not like the teams are in a similar situation like us F1 fans, when hiring drivers - we see them a few times on TV giving interviews and we have to decide whether they are good enough to work for us. Seems a bit odd to claim in retrospect "oh we finally found out Sergio is arrogant". Like McLaren hasn't had such drivers before. They should already sense such drivers with gut feeling, who could possibly fit into their team or who couldn't. And if they still take a gamble, then perhaps be prepared to adapt team's culture accordingly.
I remember after hiring Perez McLaren/Whitmarsh started instantly making comments that "he will be on pace, delivering from the beginning"; "we will have to train him to become having a McLaren mindset". I remember some people on the forums were instantly sceptical about such thing, saying that Whitmarsh hasn't got a clue about man-management, telling to "teach" his new employee already before he has started working for them... Yeah, I think this scepticism was right. Problems in an organization usually start from the top. If you hire people /other characters with a view of moulding them becoming like you, it will end badly. Ended with Montoya, ended with Alonso. In the end Hamilton wasn't happy either. Only drivers with a very professional attitude like Coulthard and Button can take it long-term. Or Hakkinen, who had a very soft and gentle character and didn't care.
Perez himself is/was only 23/24 years old too, so to expect him to be very mature out of his age was perhaps an over-expectation as well. Hey, Vettel is 26 and people still complain he is childish. It is a bit sad for Perez that he is now put into such bad light that could possibly end his career. But he is young and could mature. However, McLaren has a long history of mismanaging drivers and this makes me much more careful.
I think the problem with Perez is threefold.
Firstly he might be backed by the world's richest guy but Slim didn't get that rich by wasting his money. As Whitmarsh said at the time Perez was signed he was looking for new sponsorship opportunities. Telmex has refused to bring the kind of sponsorship package to the table that McLaren would have liked, and now Woking is feeling much much more financially stable for the future with a Vodaphone replacement and a works/sponsorship deal with Honda suddenly the need for a Mexican driver is much reduced. Instead they need to think about placating Honda who would expect a top driver paired with a highly promising talent for the future. Perez is neither.
Secondly I've heard the accusations of arrogance before. Joe Saward reported last year that after Perez' great performance at Sepang Ferrari were actually less impressed than before with Perez because his perception of his self worth had blown way out of proportion to reality, hence why he was dropped by them as a potential future driver despite Massa doing his level best to be sacked mid-season.
Thirdly as a driver he is ok, average. There are many that are worse and many that are better than he. He hasn't shown a tremendous improvement through the season and his race logic at times such as Monaco has been dubious at best.
None of these on their own would have been enough to sack him but together? I think its enough. I hope Kevin Magnussen is the real deal though as McLaren are taking a big risk going for him.
Edited by Talisman, 17 November 2013 - 13:41.