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.

 

[Hamberg]

Why, WHY is this fucking liability still allowed to use up a precious sought after drive ? WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????

 

[Greenlantern101]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Someone at Lotus should sit Pastor Maldonado down and make him watch the last 10 laps of that race, just to show him how two World class drivers at the front of the race can go at it like hammer and tongs and still bring the car home.

 

[Jen]

Whilst teams keep employing him, he will never understand what he does wrong. Who is to blame? - the cash hungry team or the pratt who believes he can drive?

He can drive, but safety doesn't figure in his psyche. The money blinds him to his own and other's mortality - I fear it is becoming more and more common in many walks of life.

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Both as bad as each other i think Jen

 

[mjo]

Maldonado's got 3 points on his licence and a 5 place grid penalty for China.

 

[Hamberg]

Should have got five points and 10 places. Or kicked out.

 

[Fenderman]

mjo - Good
Hamberg - Indeed.

 

[mjo]

In the eyes of the FIA, a loose wheel is more punishable than stupid driving?

 

[Johnny Carwash]

The race stewards must have been members of Pastor Maldonados family.

 

[Tacitus]

In the eyes of the FIA, a loose wheel is more punishable than stupid driving?

I'd say in F1 a loose wheel is statistically more likely to cause a serious injury. Loose wheels are no joke.

 

[Fenderman]

In the pages of the rule book at least mjo . Warwick was having a kip ... Johnny Carwash

Edit: That's true Tacitus ... I suppose ...

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Far too lenient by the stewards. Grosjean was banned after a shocking incident at Spa but that changed him and his driving style and he became an improved driver from then on. Maldo needs the same treatment to try and change his reckless driving style. A 5 place drop does nothing.

 

[GeoffP]

To be fair, he's getting better.

Having said that, there's only so many times you can exceed the speed limit going the wrong way down a motorway whilst drunk. If the teams can't refuse his cash it's time the alleged rule makers banned his risk.

 

[Road of Bones]

If I were Pastor's sponsor, I'd be having a long hard look at myself- how terrible is he making PDVSA look, by continuing to cough up for such a liability to go on chucking his car about as if he's playing a video game?

 

[Mephistopheles]

A five place grid penalty ain't gonna mean much he can't get out of Q1 anyway...

Thank goodness he isn't driving for Williams anymore just think of the damage he could do at the sharp end of the grid....

 

[siffert_fan]

He needs a ban for his own safety as well as to prove to him that his driving doesn't come up to the required standard. IMHO he IS capable of performing at the required level, but rarely seems to pull his head out long enough to do so.

 

[Fenderman]

IMHO Maldonado has an attitude problem that is deep rooted in his psyche. He does not believe he does anything wrong. It's a pathological issue and nothing bar a lobotomy will cure it. In other words he will only solve his problem by curbing his innate aggression which will make him slow. Either way I don't see him having much of a future in F1 and everyone will be better off when he takes up a career in Destruction Derby. In fact I think he should career off to DD at the earliest opportunity.

Grosjean's issue is physiological in that he has less than the ideal spatial awareness. His trainers have been able to mitigate against that deficit by helping him to consciously compensate for it by upping his concentration and paying more attention to his surroundings. As long as he can keep that up he will continue to have a decent if not particularly illustrious F1 career.

Caveat: Of course I'm only an armchair psychologist so as ever my psychobabble is only as good as the next person's.

 

[Il_leone]

One word first syllable pea and second syllable rick

Saying he was caught out by surprise by Gutierrez is absolute garbage because he is rejoining the race track and going back on the racing line

That guy needs to go to a driving school

 

[F1Yorkshire]

Maldonado has issued another statement.

http://m.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/309205/maldonado-gutierrez-move-on-from-collision/

Seriously can't he take responsibility for his actions. How he didn't see him when he was in front of him when he left the pits baffles me.

It will be interesting to see what Gutierrez says about this statement.