Nico Rosberg's retirement from the 2013 season was a sad postscript to Mercedes' last great day of 2013. This engine detonation dragged Willams' Pastor Maldonado into the points in 10th, to pick up his only point since the end of 2012.
Spain in 2012 saw Bruno Senna's Williams join the 2010 newbies on the bench for Q2, while Maldonado qualified second, which was upgraded to a maiden pole position amidst McLaren building up straws on the Hamilton camel's back. Despite being beaten off the line by Alonso's suspiciously normal stormer of a Spanish start, he got the Spaniard at the pit stop and won the race, holding off Alonso.
So, how do we evaluate race winner Pastor Maldonado? Well, the obvious thing to say is that he is rather crash-prone, and sometimes these incidents have been rather avoidable. The incident with Hamilton in qualifying in Spa in 2011 and with Perez in Monaco practice a year later were particularly egregious incidents. The lack of a race ban for either of those is unfathomable.
In three of his four seasons in F1 (2011, 2013, 2014*) he has scored a total of two points, which looks bad. His team-mates have outscored him in those three years too (BAR 4-1 MAL, 2011; BOT 4-1 MAL, 2013; GRO 8-0 2014*) although those scores hardly hint at too many opportunities. Indeed, both Barrichello and Grosjean exploited the typical attrition of the consecutive races at Monaco and Montreal - Grosjean finished on track behind a Marussia in Monaco...
So that's three years where he was delivered a poor car; such is often the way with a pay driver. But there is more to it - in 2011 he should have taken those points at Monaco, only to be rather unfortunate to come off worse in a collision with Hamilton at Monaco. However, it is true that he should have been black flagged for the qualifying collision with Hamilton when he picked up his point at Spa.
The best way to judge Maldonado is his 2012 form. The pace was absolutely there. His qualifying form was worth 123 points - equivalent to 8th in the qualifying championship and 7th in the real thing. Senna picked up only 2 qualifying points all year. And the roll call, even in that most upside down of years, is impressive. Pole in Barcelona, front row in Singapore, third at Abu Dhabi, Valencia and Spa.
I think the conclusion is, however, in. There's more than pace to being a racing driver. Fernando Alonso has the habit of being there when conditions are unfavourable, while Maldonado seems to find a way to not be there when conditions are great. After Spain, there was a 9 race run out of the points. A plethora of mistakes at Monaco (Senna took a point), poor pace in Montreal, a podium thrown away into the side of Hamilton at Valencia (Senna took a point), crashed into Perez at Silverstone (Senna took two points), lapped at Hockenheim, a poor start at Hungaroring (Senna took 6 points), at Spa a jump start, caught up in the Grosjean melée and another crash into Glock, beaten by Senna at Monza and unfortunate at Singapore.
Maldonado beat Senna that year, but he'd shown the potential that Senna couldn't unlock and he threw away. He's scored 47 points in F1. Two races (ESP/ABD 2012) make up 74% of his career points. I think it is fair to say that should Maldonado ever get a good car, he will have the pace. The last two years have not changed the suspicion he will not be around to benefit when the points get handed out.
Spain in 2012 saw Bruno Senna's Williams join the 2010 newbies on the bench for Q2, while Maldonado qualified second, which was upgraded to a maiden pole position amidst McLaren building up straws on the Hamilton camel's back. Despite being beaten off the line by Alonso's suspiciously normal stormer of a Spanish start, he got the Spaniard at the pit stop and won the race, holding off Alonso.
So, how do we evaluate race winner Pastor Maldonado? Well, the obvious thing to say is that he is rather crash-prone, and sometimes these incidents have been rather avoidable. The incident with Hamilton in qualifying in Spa in 2011 and with Perez in Monaco practice a year later were particularly egregious incidents. The lack of a race ban for either of those is unfathomable.
In three of his four seasons in F1 (2011, 2013, 2014*) he has scored a total of two points, which looks bad. His team-mates have outscored him in those three years too (BAR 4-1 MAL, 2011; BOT 4-1 MAL, 2013; GRO 8-0 2014*) although those scores hardly hint at too many opportunities. Indeed, both Barrichello and Grosjean exploited the typical attrition of the consecutive races at Monaco and Montreal - Grosjean finished on track behind a Marussia in Monaco...
So that's three years where he was delivered a poor car; such is often the way with a pay driver. But there is more to it - in 2011 he should have taken those points at Monaco, only to be rather unfortunate to come off worse in a collision with Hamilton at Monaco. However, it is true that he should have been black flagged for the qualifying collision with Hamilton when he picked up his point at Spa.
The best way to judge Maldonado is his 2012 form. The pace was absolutely there. His qualifying form was worth 123 points - equivalent to 8th in the qualifying championship and 7th in the real thing. Senna picked up only 2 qualifying points all year. And the roll call, even in that most upside down of years, is impressive. Pole in Barcelona, front row in Singapore, third at Abu Dhabi, Valencia and Spa.
I think the conclusion is, however, in. There's more than pace to being a racing driver. Fernando Alonso has the habit of being there when conditions are unfavourable, while Maldonado seems to find a way to not be there when conditions are great. After Spain, there was a 9 race run out of the points. A plethora of mistakes at Monaco (Senna took a point), poor pace in Montreal, a podium thrown away into the side of Hamilton at Valencia (Senna took a point), crashed into Perez at Silverstone (Senna took two points), lapped at Hockenheim, a poor start at Hungaroring (Senna took 6 points), at Spa a jump start, caught up in the Grosjean melée and another crash into Glock, beaten by Senna at Monza and unfortunate at Singapore.
Maldonado beat Senna that year, but he'd shown the potential that Senna couldn't unlock and he threw away. He's scored 47 points in F1. Two races (ESP/ABD 2012) make up 74% of his career points. I think it is fair to say that should Maldonado ever get a good car, he will have the pace. The last two years have not changed the suspicion he will not be around to benefit when the points get handed out.