McLaren Worried Perez Will Not Be Able to Stand Pressure

McLarenMcLarenUnited Kingdom, 1963 > present92 models
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Team boss Martin Whitmarsh is admitting that hiring Sergio Perez from SauberSauberSwitzerland, 1970 > present21 models
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for next season is a major gamble for the team, and he worries whether Perez will be able to take the pressure that comes from racing for a top team. 

"He has never experienced the type of pressure that these two guys [speaking of Hamilton and Button] are under. You turn up in a McLaren and if you are not on the front couple of rows then there is a lot of pressure applied to you," said Whitmarsh. 

Perez is 22, the same age that Hamilton was when he joined McLaren in 2007. However, Hamilton won the Formula 3 and GP2 championships in 2005 and 2006 respectively, and he was second in the World Drivers' Championship for McLaren in 2007. Perez has not been as successful in his early career.  

"There are examples of drivers who can live with that pressure and other drivers who cannot, so I think it would be foolish of me to sit here and say, taking a very young driver, there is not an element of risk in it," said Whitmarsh. 

Perez has scored 66 points so far this season with two races to go, which is a significant improvement over the 14 points he scored last season for Sauber. His best results this year have been a second place at the Italian Grand Prix and the Malaysian Grand Prix. 

Like nearly every driver in Formula 1, Perez started his career in karts before moving to lower formula series and moved to Sauber in 2011 after two seasons in GP2.

Source: Autosport