Pastor Maldonado has been in a number of incidents on track during his relatively short F1 career so far, and has blamed that on "bad luck".
But is it bad luck or bad driving which has caused these poor results? Maldonado took his maiden win in Spain, 4 races ago, and has yet to score a single point since. After moving up to 9th in the drivers championship, his lack of scoring has dropped him further back.
Maldonado has been called to the stewards on 3 occasions this season, twice for incidents with Perez and once for a clash with Lewis Hamilton. Pastor is known for his fiery and aggressive driving style but is that same style the cause of the results.
Think back to Spa last year. After Lewis Hamilton quickly closed and overtook Pastor during Q2 to improve his lap time, Maldonado thought Lewis had ruined his lap. To the less hot headed drivers, they would have had a friendly chat and carried on like nothing happened. Maldonado decided against this and confronted him on track, swiping across Hamilton in retaliation. Now that was not bad luck.
Maldonado did something similar in Monaco, this time involving Sergio Perez. The swipe across the front nose seems to be a Maldonado trademark now? Looking at the incident in Valencia , in my opinion it was 40% Hamilton's fault and the remaining 60% lying with Maldonado. Yes Lewis could of left abit more room but once the Venezuelan was off track, he should of backed off or cut across the run off.
Finally there was the incident with Perez at the British GP. This incident could of gone contact free if Pastor had not of clunked the inside kerb and failed an attempt to correct his bottoming car. Perez classed him as "disrespectful" and "stupid", another fiery Latin American driver.
So has his season been thanks to bad luck or bad driving, well he certainly thinks it is the former. He said "I am passing through a bad and unlucky moment, I haven't got any points after the victory, and it is frustrating, but the Championship is long."
"We have lost a lot of points, but we have everything in the right place to get some points from the next race and the second part of the season. We can recover and it is not the end of the season. I have a lot of confidence in the team and they have confidence in me and we need to keep on pushing."
It is no secret that Pastor has the speed. Just look at his pace in Spain. He has also been a Qualifying, specialist, lining up P3 in Valencia being an impressive highlight. He was also on course for points in the opening round before a small error brought him into the wall.
Maldonado has also out performed his team mate Senna, particularly in Qualifying. Senna has scored on more occasions due to his increased consistency in comparison to his team mate, making him the more reliable of the 2.
Pastor says it must be bad luck, but it cant be bad luck when you create the problems yourself. In Australia he made the error which caused him to crash. In Monaco his race was ruined by his actions in FP3 with Perez, which caused his race to be compromised. The error in Britain led to his clash with Perez and he did not make the right decision with Lewis in Valencia.
Weighing up his performance, it is clear to see that he is fast but inconsistent. A team like Williams, which has lower funds compared to some, need to keep costs down and getting spare parts brought in is very costly. His speed is plain to see, but he needs to get more reliable and consistent in his race performance.
 |
| (c) Octane Photographic |
Maldonado has been called to the stewards on 3 occasions this season, twice for incidents with Perez and once for a clash with Lewis Hamilton. Pastor is known for his fiery and aggressive driving style but is that same style the cause of the results.
Think back to Spa last year. After Lewis Hamilton quickly closed and overtook Pastor during Q2 to improve his lap time, Maldonado thought Lewis had ruined his lap. To the less hot headed drivers, they would have had a friendly chat and carried on like nothing happened. Maldonado decided against this and confronted him on track, swiping across Hamilton in retaliation. Now that was not bad luck.
Maldonado did something similar in Monaco, this time involving Sergio Perez. The swipe across the front nose seems to be a Maldonado trademark now? Looking at the incident in Valencia , in my opinion it was 40% Hamilton's fault and the remaining 60% lying with Maldonado. Yes Lewis could of left abit more room but once the Venezuelan was off track, he should of backed off or cut across the run off.
Finally there was the incident with Perez at the British GP. This incident could of gone contact free if Pastor had not of clunked the inside kerb and failed an attempt to correct his bottoming car. Perez classed him as "disrespectful" and "stupid", another fiery Latin American driver.
So has his season been thanks to bad luck or bad driving, well he certainly thinks it is the former. He said "I am passing through a bad and unlucky moment, I haven't got any points after the victory, and it is frustrating, but the Championship is long."
"We have lost a lot of points, but we have everything in the right place to get some points from the next race and the second part of the season. We can recover and it is not the end of the season. I have a lot of confidence in the team and they have confidence in me and we need to keep on pushing."
It is no secret that Pastor has the speed. Just look at his pace in Spain. He has also been a Qualifying, specialist, lining up P3 in Valencia being an impressive highlight. He was also on course for points in the opening round before a small error brought him into the wall.
Maldonado has also out performed his team mate Senna, particularly in Qualifying. Senna has scored on more occasions due to his increased consistency in comparison to his team mate, making him the more reliable of the 2.
Pastor says it must be bad luck, but it cant be bad luck when you create the problems yourself. In Australia he made the error which caused him to crash. In Monaco his race was ruined by his actions in FP3 with Perez, which caused his race to be compromised. The error in Britain led to his clash with Perez and he did not make the right decision with Lewis in Valencia.
Weighing up his performance, it is clear to see that he is fast but inconsistent. A team like Williams, which has lower funds compared to some, need to keep costs down and getting spare parts brought in is very costly. His speed is plain to see, but he needs to get more reliable and consistent in his race performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.