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.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Well I'm pretty bloody sure he didn't do it on purpose, who the hell would... well Schumacher did it to Damon and tried it on Villeneuve and Ayrton did to Prost maybe they should have been kicked out of F1 instead of going on to be two the the greatest drivers the sport has ever known...

 

[KekeTheKing]

Maldonado is so weak mentally that you can never say for certain it wasn't on purpose. I mean the video speaks volumes. And as I've pointed out elsewhere, he's in no danger whatsoever of losing a drive until 2016. Maybe he finally got his revenge from Monaco and Spa last year.

 

[GeoffP]

The style of racing has evolved substantially of the decades. I suspect everybody's favourite race would not be allowed for one reason or another under today's rules, so I don't think the motor sport greats have much to worry about from me there

Secondly I've not suggested Maldonado is booted out of F1, I have suggested his punishment should be harsher should this trend continue and that the Stewards warn him that his style needs to become more aware of other racers otherwise they do have the ability to prevent him racing.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Well he has won a race and he was on for a good finish and he tried to steer away from Lewis as the skypad clearly showed but his car was on the curb and he had no steering, and so slid into Lewis (Not deliberately drove into him.) Mark Webber pointed this out as well and when pushed on whether Pastor should have cut across the speed bumps Mark's answer was uuuuuummmmmmmmmm not sure maybe yes, the yes was squeezed out as if he still wasn't sure.

The Stewards had more data than we have and as for Vergne he deliberately chopped across the front of another driver when there was absolutely no need to do so causing a safety car to be deployed so he got a harsher penalty whereas Lewis and Pastor were actually fighting for position a position that Lewis had absolutely no chance of defending, and should have given up, so whilst it was not Hamilton's fault he is not totally blameless..

 

[KekeTheKing]

should have given up

Yeah, Pastor never pitches it off the circuit in the final lap. Oh, wait....

 

[Lewywo4]

I find it hard to believe myself sometimes Mephistopheles

The guy who has taken more shit than anybody in Formula One for being "overly aggressive and reckless" has a nearly spotless record when it comes to actually taking people out. Lewis has been pilloried for years without causing a single high profile incident (He doesn't clash with top drivers). His lone "punt" was when Maldonado (surprise, surprise) decided to close the door after the horse had already bolted. It's seriously embarrassing when people claim he's had "dozens" of incidents over the years. They're letting their blind dislike for the man cloud what has actually transpired in real life. I will recognize the Canada 08 incident as well, but that was not while racing. It was a terrible mistake caused by some strange circumstances, but it had nothing to do with undue aggression on the circuit.

In 2012 alone, we have Pastor Maldonado;

1) diving up the inside at Australia and breaking Grosjeans suspension
2) chopping up Perez which knocked him out of Qualifying at Monaco
3) forgetting to brake into Ste. Devote and smashing de la Rosa out of the race
4) disregarding track limits and curbing, punting Hamilton out of the GP

But hey, I wouldn't want to get into it either if I was so blatantly off base...

 

[no-FIAt-please]

I knew Maldonado hit a marshall but I didn't know he broke his back...

Racing in the Renault World Series in 2005, the then 25-year-old ignored yellow flags before striking and severely injuring a marshal.
Organisers of the Monaco grand prix reacted by banning Maldonado from the street circuit for life.
Bild revealed that Maldonado’s wealthy father intervened, promising to pay for the marshal’s recovery and rehabilitation from a broken back.

(from YallaF1)

In addition to keeping his seat in F1 for 2012 becuase of oil money he has also kept his whole career because of it too...

 

[Olivier]

I wonder if instead of Hamilton, Maldonado would have crashed into, say Webber, that would have caused this level of controversy?

 

[no-FIAt-please]

I see where you're going with that comment... Personally I don't think this is an over reaction. He has a long history of being agressive and using his car as a weapon. He has done this twice in one and a half seasons of F1 now, he is clearly showing no sign of improvement. He even had the nerve to say it was Hamilton's fault. I have no doubt he has the ability to be a successful F1 driver but he certainly does not have the right attitude while on track.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I can name numerous drivers that have hit marshals and actually killed them, for instance Nick Heidfeld took the door off the medical car whilst the doctor was getting out of it, but I fail to see how that has got anything to do with Sundays accident..

 

[F1ang-o]

no-FIAt-please
According to info. that I've looked at on the web, the Marshall hit by PM had a broken leg & ......and other injury.
I checked the web & it doesn't mention back injury, I had read that earlier on here & shouldn't have mentioned it until I had checked it out.
Edit I see now, that you have found a link to the back injury

 

[Lewywo4]

if you are going to use that logic then you would have to apply it to all drivers after all just how many drivers has Lewis crashed into in his F1 career? .

No dispespect to Vettel.......Sebastian and Lewis have both been racing in F1 for approximately the same period of time, and I'll bet that Vettel has had more coillisions, and taken out more drivers in a race than Lewis......two which immediately come to mind, involving Vettel with his own teammate.

 

[Lewywo4]

I wonder if instead of Hamilton, Maldonado would have crashed into, say Webber, that would have caused this level of controversy?

................

 

[Viscount]

What the commentator says (I'm Dutch) is that it already "went wrong a day before, during the a training session when Pastor Maldonado crashed blablabla". So I'm guessing that was broadcast after the incident in qualifying

Thanks I wondered what the commentator was saying. Still, it's definitely not Maldonado crashing shown in that clip, in the World Series he drove an all yellow car in 2006 and a white and blue car in 2005. The car crashing is all navy blue. Maldonado's 2005 white & blue car was identical to the car on the left that gets hit, who was his teammate at the time Alx Danielsson.

 

[F1ang-o]

lewymp4
The one that immediately springs to mind ..Vettel..was when he took Jenson out....was it Spa2010? near the pits .....where Seb nipped in, got his car fixed & ploughed his way through the field ,,,,taking bits off several cars as he overtook them. He earned the name Crash Kid that day..from Martin Whitmarsh.
Last year when LH was being Massad.......Christian Horner quipped McLaren now have their own crash kid....difference was they were turning/crashing into him as he tried some adventurous overtaking.... that if he had pulled off would have been hailed as brilliant.
Sorry off topic.

 

[RickD]

So, why is this situation any different from Hamiltons attempts at overtaking Massa last year? I don't particularly see much difference to most of those incidents. An over-ambitious attempt to overtake ending in hitting another car. If the wall wasn't there, it's possible Lewis could have continued the same as Massa did last year.

Calling for a harsher penalty is just showing your bias for a certain driver.

 

[FB]

As I'm hoping to meet Pastor in a few days time I will shake him warmly by the hand and thank him for returning Williams to the winners circle. The race in Spain was almost as emotional as Damon Hill's World Title.

All drivers make mistakes, it will be interesting to see if there is a driver backlash toward Maldonado in the same there was toward Hamilton last year as he bounced about.

 

[Brogan]

I'm guessing not FB.

For obvious reasons.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Is it cos 'e is hispanic?

 

[F1ang-o]

At the end of last night's BBC2 prog QI...Stephen Fry said..
"If you can't be a good example, try to be a horrible warning"