F1 race guru says Peroni has the right stuff

THE man who played a key role in Nigel Mansell realising his potential reckons Tasmanian dynamo Alex Peroni is already as good as some Formula 1 drivers.

Award-winning motorsport journalist Peter Windsor — who was team manager at Williams when Mansell claimed the world title in 1992 — has followed Peroni’s progress since he won at Monaco in the Formula Renault class last year.

Windsor, who also worked as general manager for Ferrari’s UK base in 1989, is in Hobart to assist Peroni’s fundraising effort to get back on the track following his horror crash at Monza in September, which left the 19year-old with a fractured T6 vertebra.

While he is edging closer to getting back behind the wheel, Peroni needs to raise more than $1.5 million to be able to accept a contract that sits on the table with his current Formula 3 team Campos.

It is a situation that has left his family scrambling to keep their son’s dream alive, and one Windsor has no doubt can reach the top level if given the opportunity.

“He’s as good as most of the guys in Formula 1, if not better,” Windsor said.

“I mean, there’s no way you win on circuits like Monaco and Pau, where it’s more about driver than it is on a lot of the fast circuits where it’s about engine and set up.

“There’s no way you win in the way he’s been winning unless you have got a lot of talent.

“But it’s very difficult for young drivers today because there’s not as much testing and running.

“If you think relatively recently, even Lewis Hamilton’s year, let alone before that, you could do a lot more testing in the Junior Formula and Formula 3.

“These guys have very little running, they’re expected to get in the car, it’s massive pressure, so it’s very difficult to make it.

“But all the signs are that he has the talent to make it. And I have no doubt even now, if he had the budget, and he was doing formula two, he’d be quick.”