Pastor Maldonado: Fast but erratic

[phil1993]

I made this point on another forum, I thought we could have a chat about it here too.

The one thing that irritates me about Pastor is the apparently blindness of the driver to see the other point of view. I know they are racing drivers, but Maldonado keeps bullshitting us (and thinking we're retarded) by NEVER taking the blame for his silly actions. I'm not just talking about here by the way, but it was another case. He's blindingly quick, but erratic. If anything, his win in Spain was a curse & a blessing - to him, it justified that his driving style is fine because he won. In reality, he's cost his team probably around 30 points this season, if not more, by being a total tool in four of the eight events already. And he's only into year two of a five year deal (unless PDVSA find another Venezuelan driver), so someone could do with a word with him.

After the race he said this:
"We were struggling at the beginning of the race but at the end I passed Lewis (Hamilton) and then he came back across. I jumped across the kerb but there was nothing I could do and we made contact."

Point One: He had not passed Lewis
Point Two: Lewis came back across - fair point
Point Three: He could have taken to the run-off or backed off. It was avoidable.

And if Pastor wants to cry foul at someone defending aggressively, that's laughable. He forced Raikkonen wide at Turn 17 on Lap 2.

I'm not justifying that Lewis was in the right by the way, just saying.

The current generation seem to have forgotten that you can defend your position and that DRS + fresher tyres doesn't automatically guarantee your a free pass. You're seeing it further down the pecking order as well (not DRS obviously, but poor driving). I had a brief Twitter conversation with Tio Ellinas after the GP3 race and he was livid at being given a time penalty for forcing Ceccon out of the way. He kept using the famous Senna, 'if you no longer go for a gap, you no longer a racing driver' quote on me. So is this what the current generation think? "Either you move or we crash"?

So what do you guys think about Pastor Maldonado, or just generally the state of driving?

[François]

Alternate ideas for this thread's title:

Pastor Maldonado: Erratic but arrogant
Pastor Maldonado: Idiotic but erratic
Pastor Maldonado: Idiotic but idiotic
Pastor Maldonado: Never Responsible but Always Irresponsible
Pastor Maldonado: Fast Whenever Heading Towards the Wall
Pastor Maldonado: Fast Career Switch to NASCAR Guaranteed

Seriously. The guy's reliable in that you can always count on him to hit trouble (usually hitting other things on the way). He's a paddock clown, Massa'11-caliber. Banned from racing in Monaco for life but saved by daddy's money. His antics are quickly becoming as predictable a running gag as, say, Latvala crashing out in WRC or Audi winning LeMans. He's a disgrace, the last guy in the whole field I'd want to see on the podium again. After 27 F1 races including a victory, inexperience is no longer an excuse. Not that he would bring it forward - it's much classier to always lay the blame on the other driver.

Even Lewis had the class not to lash out at his antics this time. Speaks volumes.

I think at least some of us appreciate to see respect between drivers in F1, no matter the speed or the results. Maybe he'll still have a successful career anyway, who knows. It'd be easier if it were just rookie mistakes to iron out; sadly enough, there's no quick fix to being a prick.


Onto part two of your question, even though some penalties have been harsh, even ridiculous at times, I cannot help but feel that the driving standards in F1 have massively improved, and we're seeing a lot of clean overtaking, where both drivers understand who's going to come out on top and react accordingly before an accident becomes unavoidable. Of course we also want drivers taking chances and making mistakes, but it's never satisfactory when somebody wins after tipping a rival into a spin or shoving them off the road like we see sometimes in the feeder series. In all honesty, though, I would rather see fines and a gradual warning/probation system than those grid penalties carried onto another event. Serving a penalty at another event weeks later always seems somewhat irrelevant.

[phil1993]

I just find it rich of Pastor to complain about being forced wide when he did exactly the same to Kimi & Mark earlier in the race

[donald29]

It annoys me how often that Senna quote is used. It's massively over-used. I wonder how many people remember he said it when justifying to Jackie Stewart ramming Prost off the road at Suzuka 1990.

His attitude does annoy me though, especially after Monaco where when interviewed by the Perez thing he kind of aggressively told interviewers 'I lost the cars and dats it.' Worst of all though was in Canada when he had the cheek to claim the stewards were inconsistent when Vettel accidentally clipped Bruno Senna's car in practice. Vettel made a mistake and light contact was made, Pastor deliberately rammed a car (for the second time in his short career) and heavy contact was made.

He's certainly lost Williams more points than he has gained this season.

As for future Venezuelan drivers, I don't think he's under threat. If anything the money would be provided for both of them to race. As long as Pastor wants to race and has the Venezuelan backing he'll be able to. Chavez wants Venezuelan racing drivers to boost national pride (after Maldonado won in Spain there was a national holiday). We have three Venezuelans in GP2 at the moment and a team with 'Venezuela' as a title sponsor. But look at Rudolfo Gonzalez in GP2. He's been around a long time but has rarely scored points and always seems to be crashing and causing incidents. There is no way he should be in GP2, but he has the backing.

[phil1993]

Every Venezuelan racing driver is fast but erratic - Viso, Maldonado, Cecotto.

I just wonder how frustrated Williams must be getting. They have one very fast driver who keeps throwing it away and the other who's just extremely average. Pastor lost 8 points in Australia, 15 in Valencia and an unknown amount through his incidents in Monaco and Montreal. Instead of being comfortably ahead of Sauber in the championship, they're narrowly fending off an improving Force India.

[François]

Yeah but they built their first winning car since 2004 thanks to venezuelan money. They've got to take the good and the bad (and the ugly) and make do with it, I guess.

Bit worried (but not surprised) that Bruno Senna has been so slow. I'll be surprised if he remains in F1 in 2013.

[donald29]

I wouldn't say Gonzalez is fast. Slow and erratic.

From Planet F1 which sums it up nicely:

There's a well-worn and affectionate phrase; "he's not as stupid as he looks" but after the European Grand Prix in Valencia, you've got to say that Pastor Maldonado is every bit as stupid as he looks. He threw away a great result in Australia and now he's gone and thrown away an almost certain podium place in Valencia. He was closing on Lewis Hamilton at great speed. Lewis's tyres had fallen off the cliff. Instead of waiting a few more corners - he had a lap and a half left - he rushed to get past him and produced an avoidable accident. What makes it worse is that he then tried to blame Lewis Hamilton for a bit of driving which was every bit as bad as when he deliberately drove into Perez in Monaco. Hamilton's line through the corner was no different to the one that Maldonado had employed to keep Kimi Raikkonen at bay early in the race.

You'd like to think that stupidity of this magnitude should get more than a retrospective drive-through penalty (20 seconds). Given that he's had two incidents of driver rage within the last year, plus more collisions besides, it's time that the FIA looked at giving drivers time off for bad behaviour.

Oh and I was reading the latest F1 Racing magazine last night, and there was a little bit that claimed after Barcelona most teams including Ferrari enquired about Maldonado's availability. Hmmm, are they still enquiring?

[dimitris]

Fades in comparison to things we have seen in the past though , Senna brings to mind.
I think it just shows passion and competitiveness really, south americans are perhaps a little bit more aggressive in that sense, JPM was the same for example.

Honestly i think he wasn´t really going to hit the other car, just mis-judged it completely.

[reppo]

I thought he is just young and stupid, but hey, he is already 27. Maybe he is just stupid then. If he keeps behaving like that on the track, he is out of F1 in couple of years. There are more and more younger drivers coming through to top and crashing doesn't look good in CV.

@donald I agree the quote sums it up nicely.

[StratCaster]

If he keeps behaving like that on the track, he is out of F1 in couple of years. There are more and more younger drivers coming through to top and crashing doesn't look good in CV.

This basically sums up my opinion. I don't think Hamilton is blameless in this particular incident and I haven't been paying attention enough to throw Maldonado completely under the bus quite yet. Everything will work itself out and I won't be surprised if Williams has a completely new stable ASAP, as much as I like Senna.

[phil1993]

The problem is that Williams's lucrative contract with PDVSA stipulates that the team must have a Venezuelan driver.

[mileso]

When thinking of how bad Maldonado is, I look at Di Resta and remark on the number of times he backs off, gives room, bows to the inevitable and yet finishes the race... in the points. Pastor has lots of passion but Paul has the smarts. I think we have several young drivers who are learning their craft and several who should be off the track selling pop corn (What was Vergne thinking, driving 100mph on a flat thus wrecking his car while Grosjean tried to minimize his dead car's impact on the race course by finding a safe place to stop.)
When these crashing drivers win as many races and WDC's as Ayerton did, then I might allow them to use that quote.

[skywatcher]

Hot headed and unwilling to get control over his emotions - that's how I see him, very quick, maybe a bit too sure of himself. He seems to get road rage, which isn't going to help him.

[donald29]

Just seen this video which I've not seen before, Maldonado crashing under a red flag in WSR.

http://youtu.be/kt5nt7IdyPs

As as been said, problem is this may have been 6 years ago but he's 27 now and still does stupid things. I don't think he'll ever learn. Alex Wurz is mentoring the Williams drivers, he must be banging his head against a wall!

[iceman1]

Just seen this video which I've not seen before, Maldonado crashing under a red flag in WSR.

http://youtu.be/kt5nt7IdyPs

As as been said, problem is this may have been 6 years ago but he's 27 now and still does stupid things. I don't think he'll ever learn. Alex Wurz is mentoring the Williams drivers, he must be banging his head against a wall!

Alonso did the same in Brazil 2003

Maldonado is a bit aggressive. He should go to a slower team (HRT, Marrusia) learn how to control his car then come back to Williams. He's fast but inconsistent.