Pastor Maldonado

Courtesy of Planet F1 and Tranquility's post in the Belgian PQR thread here's a place to discuss the Williams' No.2

"Is Pastor Maldonado the scariest man in sport? His post-Spa interview was delivered with a stare that could put a weak-hearted man six foot under from a distance of ten yards and culminated in the remarkable, utterly-terrifying announcement that he regards Lewis Hamilton as "a really good friend."

Jeepers.

Just jeepers.

Fear and pray for his enemies."

Pastor started his racing career in Italy in the Formula Renault and F3000. He would have been Formula Renault 3.5 Champion if he hadn't been disqualified from a win at Misano in 2006. Moving on to GP2 Pastor raced for 4 seasons, eventually taking the title in 2010.

With not insubstantial financial backing from Venezuela's national petroleum company, PDVSA, he took Nico Hulkenberg's seat at Williams for 2011 winning his first point last weekend in Belgium.

On a personal level, he is a self proclaimed Socialist and a personal friend of controversial Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, which probably explains the backing from PDVSA.... Oh, and he's 26 and is still wearing braces on his teeth.

 

[Sakari]

A little harsh Sakari - he's only driver to break the Red Bull/McLaren/Lotus/Ferrari strangle hold on race wins in the last few years.

Well I don't like mentally challenged people driving F1... Blaming your own slowness on team fiddling your car is a bit too much to me. Also I am very annoyed of paid drivers driving on F1 with no skills of an F1 driver who has driven all his life. I personally think team Enstone fucked it on several levels with this decision and I mean proper fucked it.

 

[Il_leone]

well Josh he did have a lot of races he could have got podiums or strong points positions last year which he squandered by crashing in a very good car

 

[no-FIAt-please]

I hope Grosjean starts 2014 as he ended 2013, I'd like him to end Maldonado's F1 career (sadly I think his wallet would never allow for that). For Maldonado to be given the nod and not Hulkenberg really shows the sad state of affairs Lotus and F1 as a whole find themselves in.

Personally I think it's a shame that any team took him on. To ignore yellow flags, hit a marshal and nearly kill them is terrible. What's worse is that he still shows a complete disregard for safety with his driving, often swerving and taking unnecessary risks, not to mention deliberate contact in more than one instance.

When you add that he isn't a team player (as shown in Austin), he refuses to shoulder responsibility (again Austin, blamed Hamilton for their collision in 2012), he's no faster than Bottas(a rookie, even if highly regarded one), and is incredibly inconsistent (I believe he failed to score points on 9 consecutive occasions in a car that won a dry GP) then it truly staggers belief that he's secured the Lotus seat.

What a repulsive decision.

 

[RasputinLives]

Sounds like a Maldonado vs Vettel championship battle will be the only way Vettel will get people preying for him to win again.

 

[jez101]

I think it is important to remember that having Maldo as a teammate will make Romain faster. That £29m will buy a lot of upgrades. Maybe Hulk would have been 1s a lap faster, but the car would have been 2s a lap slower, if it was even on the track.

I think the folks criticising Enstone for signing him need to consider that the money might save the team from bankruptcy.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

That may be true. But they will reap their reward when they come to collect the 2014 prize money, there is no doubt in my mind that Lotus would get equal if not more were Hulkenberg driving for them.

 

[Sakari]

 

[gethinceri]

I quite like him, i really do quite like him.

 

[Road of Bones]

I hope that Force India & Williams wipe their bottoms on the Lotus next year...shame for Grosjean if they do, however!

 

[Il_leone]

jez101

Maybe they need Pastor's money so they can finally pay Raikkonen for what he has been owed for the previous year

- see Andre De Cesaris plenty of backing because he was associated with Marlboro but junked a lot of chassis through out his career including taking his own teammate in 2nd place for Dallara !!!

Genii Capital / Lotus / and previously Dani Bahar have absolutely screwed Team Enstone the way they managed the team and are probably worse than when the team was under Briatore 's management

 

[Mephistopheles]

I wouldn't mind being his best mate he seems to have a few bob laying around and he could take me with him to the races for good luck....

 

[Mephistopheles]

What's the point in building a great car if you don't have a great driver to put in it?

 

[Il_leone]

Maldonado's situation is a sad indictment of F1 currently

 

[sobriety]

What's the point in building a great car if you don't have a great driver to put in it?

If you make a car good enough, even an average driver can win in it. I'm looking at you Jacques Villeneuve (although I might be doing average drivers a disservice with that)

 

[RasputinLives]

Ya know Jacques may be the most boring man alive and completely lost his form but there was a five year period where he was one of thevbest drivers in the world. From his Indy car titles until he was dragging that Williams Mechacrome to podiums. Yes he was awful at BAR but lets not forget at one point he was up there if only for a short time.

 

[teabagyokel]

I dunno, I think that's a case of what Red Bull would be like if Webber was the number 1 driver and di Resta the number 2. He'd still win, but by less than Newey deserves and Hill/Vettel could.

 

[Lewywo4]

Ya know Jacques may be the most boring man alive and completely lost his form but there was a five year period where he was one of thevbest drivers in the world. From his Indy car titles until he was dragging that Williams Mechacrome to podiums. Yes he was awful at BAR but lets not forget at one point he was up there if only for a short time.

RasputinLives.....couldn't agree more, especially that audacious move that Jacques made on Schumacher at Portugal in 1996, one of the more spectacular and memorable passes that I have ever seen.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp37Rl2J_fg

 

[Il_leone]

RasputinLives JV's downfall was his ego after becoming world champion and when he left Williams for BAR with his manager Pollock who basically made him untouchable no matter whether he was right or wrong ( it was usually the latter than the former)

JV is responsible for some of the mess and under performance by BAR with such backing from BAT and Honda engines until BAT wised up and realised they needed someone who could steady the ship in Dave Richards

He was offered to drive for Mclaren and Renault but got into a comfort zone and only when Richards decided to change things round did he start to feel threatened and he felt the forces were working against him

 

[Il_leone]

sobriety it was his ego that was the problem and living off that he supposedly brings fear to Schumacher

 

[Il_leone]

I've been thinking about this for a bit but this article is interesting

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111745

Since Caterham realised having a driver with money does not mean the team can go forward - in fact they;ve gone backwards since dropping Heikki

It appears Caterham wants an experienced driver and an established F1 star - I am looking at either Perez, Sutil or Di Resta
- of the three I'd say Sutil would be the one who would be more willing to drive for them whilst PErez and Di Resta both believe they should be at the front of the grid

Then there is Heikki who's return to F1 did not bring results and showed race rustiness

There has not been much talk about the seats at Caterham