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.

 

[Bill Boddy]

At 12 minutes I think that the pasta will be overcooked. It should be al dente.

 

[teabagyokel]

The meal is to be served on the table, up to 30cm away from the plate. This is in homage to where Maldonado ends his races compared to the track.

It spoils extremely quickly when exposed to anything Mexican.

 

[Grizzly]

Quite right and if cooked perfectly to Bill's exacting standards, you should be able to serve it thrown against the nearest wall and scrape it off with a recovery fork.

At 12 minutes I think that the pasta will be overcooked. It should be al detonate.

 

[Bill Boddy]

I don't mind you quoting my posts with changes Grizzly but please highlight where you have changed it. If the pasta did detonate it would blow the wall down.

 

[Grizzly]

It's not fair to blame me for the mistake, Bill, other racing chef's do it, but as soon as Grizaldonadly's involved it's somehow my fault! So what if I was playing with the buttons on my racing induction hob at the time and not really paying attention.

 

[Il_leone]

cider_and_toast I don't think Pastor can bring in more cash as his home country is in politcal turmoil because of the government . I'd very much doubt Force India wants to mix Pastor with a Mexican given their collision rate together is very high which is probably more than R Schumacher/ Barrichello .

With his list of offences his licence should be revoked.. just imagine the number of penalty points he would have on his road licence for speeding , dangerous driving and illegal overtaking without due care

 

[RasputinLives]

I just want to mention something that is quietly brewing in the Enstone garages at the moment. In Singapore our friend Maldonado said that his target for the rest of the year was to complete every racing lap. This is a target he is currently meeting at the moment and has also resulted in 3 top ten finished in a row. Could the penny have finally dropped for Maldonado?

In the US Grand Prix just gone he came up to the back of a gaggle of cars and whilst there was a tiny bit of nip and tuck with Jenson Button he was exceptionaly cautious and hung back holding a watching brief. For the last 3 races actually he's been strangley quiet. He's seemed a little slower than earlier in the season however he is bringing the car home and, very importantly for Enstone, scoring points. This is kind of how Grosjean started on his road back from being accident prone, slower to start with but making sure he finished to build up confidence.

Has Maldonado turned over a new leaf? Be interesting to watch.

 

[Fenderman]

 

[Il_leone]

Helps to know his future is secure for 1 more year and he will have a rookie against him. Has someone finally had a quiet word with him to calm down?

 

[Road of Bones]

Perhaps it's more a case of "look Pastor - we can't keep spending your sponsorship money fixing your shunts, and if you keep crashing, we'll never survive into next year"...

 

[RasputinLives]

Well whatever it is its currently working.

Now I've said this though he'll go and have a massive shunt in Mexico or something.

 

[FB]

I haven't been counting but quite a few of Pastor's failures this year weren't his fault.

 

[cider_and_toast]

De Cesaris syndrome. It doesn't matter the cause, once a driver has a reputation for crashing, it's always seen as being his fault.

 

[Greenlantern101]

54 days and counting

Has Maldonado Crashed Today?

 

[Bill Boddy]

Maldonado made the foolish error of having a collision with Hamilton. He very nearly lost his head for that.

 

[Road of Bones]

The clock is ticking...
Pastor Maldonado could lose Renault seat over late payment

I rather hope KMag gets the drive instead!

 

[F1Brits_90]

yes i saw that on bbc sport, makes you wonder about whether this reputed £35m, that is allegedly several weeks overdue, is something to do with the what we were discussing on the lotus/enstone thread

Ive heard for last 18 months Maldonado has to start earning his place in f1 on merit (along with johnny cechetto in GP2) & 2016 ix no different might be most likely to have find new sponsorship or be undroppable on talent instead of money for 1st time in his career. because he is a double edged sword because maldonado brings a sense of national pride like when he won in spain 2012 but a growing number of people arent happy with state owned PDVSA oil company spending £30m+ a season on a luxury they cannot afford when economy is in such a mess according to guardian 1/3 of people cant buy basic stuff

the motorsport .com link below apart from talking about the corruption & extortion inside of PDVSA has got a good end to its article which summed things up. Recent parliamentary elections have shown, that popular support has waned in the face of vital shortages and increasing violent crime in a desperate country.The effect on Venezuela’s political landscape of the creation of Maduro’s new ‘people’s parliament’ remains to be seen.But with public sentiment now focused on repairing the damage done to the national economy in recent years, the government will be forced to choose between using PDVSA sponsorship to promote Venezuela in F1 through Maldonado, or diverting those funds into keeping Venezuelans happy at home.

http://www.ogj.com/articles/2015/12...replace-pdvsa-former-official-recommends.html

Analysis: The real cost of PDVSA sponsoring Pastor Maldonado

 

[RasputinLives]

The clock is ticking...
Pastor Maldonado could lose Renault seat over late payment

I rather hope KMag gets the drive instead!

Someone has to sign Vandorne surely! I mean come on! Look at his last three years. I'm flumaxed by the whole idea he's not on the grid. Like marching into an FIA meeting and locking the doors with the Catch The Pigeon theme tune on repeat until I get an answer flumaxed.

F1 teams are stupid.

 

[Il_leone]

F1 teams are stupid because they are all driven by

and not by logical decisions

So Vandorne is better than K Mag?

F1Brits_90 The political problems in Pastor's country has been brewing up for the last few years but it is quite interesting to note Renault have turned up the ante on Pastor not Jolyon

Come to think of it would Jolyon be stitched up as well then? If there is pressure to have a French driver supposedly

 

[Il_leone]

I should say it is probably about time Pastor has to fight for his seat based on his ability and not his wallet