Pastor Maldonado has admitted that criticising Williams and suggesting that the team sabotaged his car during qualifying for the United States Grand Prix was wrong.
The Venezuelan's departure from the Grove based outfit was announced just prior to the race in Austin, Texas. He was vocal about his feelings towards the team, saying he was "very happy" to be leaving.
After he was knocked out of qualifying in the first session, emotions were running high which led to him accusing the team of deliberately tweaked his car to hinder his performance.
The 28-year-old admitted, after talking to team members on Sunday, he was in the wrong. "Sometimes you get too stressed, and sometimes you value only the moment, but there is always something behind it, and after three years you explode," he told AUTOSPORT.
"I think I accumulate energy and I explode. It is not that I am crazy and I start to say many things like that. It [the criticism] was wrong from my side, because I respect them for three years and they respect me.
"But sometimes I got so stressed, especially during the week with the announcement I was leaving the team. Maybe some people changed in their approach and I was taking that personally. It was not all the team.
"I want to keep them as friends. I have big friends here, maybe the only friends I have in F1, and we pass maybe the best time of my career together and the worst time of my career together."
He finished the United States Grand Prix, held at the Circuit of the Americas, in 17th place after an early pit stop for a front wing change. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was one of the stars of the 56-lap race and registered his first points finish with eighth place.
He has no concerns over leaving Williams, but he did confirm that his future isn't yet decided: "Next year is not decided yet but I'm not worried about moving the wrong way."
Maldonado has been strongly linked to drives at Lotus and Sauber for 2014.
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| (c) Octane Photographic |
After he was knocked out of qualifying in the first session, emotions were running high which led to him accusing the team of deliberately tweaked his car to hinder his performance.
He told media in the driver 'pen' after the afternoon session on Saturday: "I never got 100 percent from the tyres, I
think somebody is playing with the pressure or temperature, it’s not
that clear."
"It’s difficult to say, I think you need
to go and ask the team and the guys who are working on the car. I think
it’s quite clear. We have one more race to go so… great."
The 28-year-old admitted, after talking to team members on Sunday, he was in the wrong. "Sometimes you get too stressed, and sometimes you value only the moment, but there is always something behind it, and after three years you explode," he told AUTOSPORT.
"I think I accumulate energy and I explode. It is not that I am crazy and I start to say many things like that. It [the criticism] was wrong from my side, because I respect them for three years and they respect me.
"But sometimes I got so stressed, especially during the week with the announcement I was leaving the team. Maybe some people changed in their approach and I was taking that personally. It was not all the team.
"I want to keep them as friends. I have big friends here, maybe the only friends I have in F1, and we pass maybe the best time of my career together and the worst time of my career together."
He finished the United States Grand Prix, held at the Circuit of the Americas, in 17th place after an early pit stop for a front wing change. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was one of the stars of the 56-lap race and registered his first points finish with eighth place.
He has no concerns over leaving Williams, but he did confirm that his future isn't yet decided: "Next year is not decided yet but I'm not worried about moving the wrong way."
Maldonado has been strongly linked to drives at Lotus and Sauber for 2014.
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