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.

 

[teabagyokel]

Get they're not chasing too hard.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I wonder if some of Pastor's inconsistant performances over his time in F1 can be put down to the fact his backers would always keep him in a drive so what did a bad day at the office matter? Somehow I don't think we'll find out what he's like without the money as he'll be dropped like a hot brick.

 

[F1Brits_90]

any chance of stoffel vandoorne, in that 2nd seat at renault replacing maldonado as he has financial & political problems, because Autosport has learned Renault is poised to appoint ART Grand Prix boss Frederic Vasseur to the newly-created role of racing director within its F1 team, actually bravo to will buxton who broke this story/rumour in october.

reason i say about stoffel vandoorne is because Frederic Vasseur is big supporter of Vandoorne saying in september
"We cannot accept that a guy who has won everything does not make it to F1, otherwise it is an absolute denial of the ladder system. If we say that this kid has won in Formula Renault, has finished second in his maiden year in the World Series, has been runner-up in his first season in GP2 and who, I hope, will be this year’s GP2 champion cannot make it to F1, how can you motivate young kids to race karts?"

Renault set to appoint ART's Vasseur - Autosport

Vandoorne missing out on F1 would be "unacceptable", says ART boss

 

[RasputinLives]

I completely agree with everything he said there so he gets my thumbs up.

 

[Il_leone]

well Maldonado was a former GP2 champion but were it not for his money from his backers he would be out of a job
I wonder if Lotus would have done better had they appointed

Hulkenburg, Di Resta or Perez back in 2014? Has anyone managed to calculate the return on investment Pastor has bought to the Lotus team ?

 

[F1Brits_90]

well Maldonado was a former GP2 champion but were it not for his money from his backers he would be out of a job, I wonder if Lotus would have done better had they appointed

Hulkenburg, Di Resta or Perez back in 2014? Has anyone managed to calculate the return on investment Pastor has bought to the Lotus team ?

completely agree, but its not maldonado fault but he kind of embodies the problems that f1 has at the moment because they were so hard up, they had to take money over talent. which is never good for the "show" as so many talented drivers like the last 4 GP2 Champions + Robin Frijns, Kamui kobayashi, Tom dillmann, Tio Ellinas, Sam Bird, James Calado

 

[FB]

In fairness F1 has always taken drivers with money, the bigger problem now is we only have ten or eleven teams. When there were twenty scrabbling to get on to the grid a few pay wasn't so much of a problem.

 

[F1Brits_90]

In fairness F1 has always taken drivers with money, the bigger problem now is we only have ten or eleven teams. When there were twenty scrabbling to get on to the grid a few pay wasn't so much of a problem.

i have no problem with pay drivers, because some of greatest drivers to ever race in F1 were pay drivers when they got on the grid thinking of lauda, schumacher, alonso & senna but difference is that drivers got on the grid through money impressed & then they got up the grid on talent, but now drivers can end up in midfield/podium challenging teams on purely monetary decisions

 

[FB]

Don't forget we are discussing the one of only 9 drivers to win a Grand Prix in the last 5 years.

 

[Olivier]

i have no problem with pay drivers, because some of greatest drivers to ever race in F1 were pay drivers when they got on the grid thinking of lauda, schumacher, alonso & senna but difference is that drivers got on the grid through money impressed & then they got up the grid on talent, but now drivers can end up in midfield/podium challenging teams on purely monetary decisions

I could be wrong but I think only Lauda was a pay driver when he started.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Yeah, he paid for his BRM drive. I think it was with a loan from an Austrian bank.

 

[teabagyokel]

FB - The only one to follow it up with ten consecutive no points finishes, though.

 

[sushifiesta]

Looking increasingly likely that he's going to be replaced with Magnussen. Good news as far as I'm concerned, Maldonado had plenty of potential but decided to direct it towards the wall most the time.

 

[F1Brits_90]

I could be wrong but I think only Lauda was a pay driver when he started.

Yeah lauda psid for his 1st season thru a bank rush said, Schumacher had his Jordan drive paid for by mercedes
Alonso got minardi drive thru sponsorship I thought
I thought senna bought his way into toleman. But this 1 I might be wrong

 

[Titch]

I've just read that Max Verstappen will replace Maldo at Renault ??

 

[Greenlantern101]

I've heard that it is going to by Animal as they want someone calmer under pressure.

 

[FB]

He'll have a hard job - Rock Legend Animal Dies Aged 66

 

[Greenlantern101]

He would still be better than Pastor.

 

[sushifiesta]

I've just read that Max Verstappen will replace Maldo at Renault ??

Where? All the rumours I've seen are for Magnussen.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Well Max already has a contract confirmed some time ago.

Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz to continue for Toro Rosso in 2016