[PaddyB]

I've not really got much of an opinion on Perez. He took LH's mclaren seat when he left for Mercedes but they were on a downward spiral at that point (no LH to develop the car properly). Since then he has shown he can certainly manage tyres and coax a car to the flag, but I'm Not convinced of his racing credentials to be honest.

I like Checo. But, is he fast enough on absolute pace? I mean Max isn't exactly a qualifying god to start with. Three poles in six (I think) seasons?

I think it would be fair to say that he has shown himself to be better than the other candidates (All three other RBR drivers other than Max TBH, although Gasly has performed well at AlphaTauri) and in particular better than Albon. Hulkenburg would have been the other but he has never had a podium which i think would have affected the stats.

I have a sneaky suspicion that the car set up / design which suits Max is one which many other drivers seem to struggle with (Gasly and Albon being recent examples) so it will be interesting to see if that proves to be the case with Checo as well.