No big surprises here...I think he makes a good case for Seb vs Lewis. I think we'll all agree on his summation for the worst driver.
hard to disagree with any of that. The Maldanado win was really something when you think about it. He managed to hold off (can't recall who...) someone for so many laps without making mistakes. Every other race he's nearly taking the front end off the car.
He was holding back Fred, not giving in under pressure. Maldanado is not one of the incapable, slow type. He just does so many really strange things, nearly always.
Quite often fast drivers get smarter with experience and make less mistakes but for some reason Maldonado hasn't made that step. Maybe it's because with his generous backing from PDVSA he felt he didn't need to.
I don't think the win was that incredible. Sure the car wasn't the very best, but he did pretty much all the hard work the day before, and then got an early birthday present when Hamilton was DQ'd. Barcelona is a tough track to overtake. Sure, defended well. Not making any mistakes is what's what any driver at this level should be able to do for at least one race... What I found incredible about the whole win thing, was that for the next 7 or so races, he managed to be completely pointless! Happy for him that he won a race, but very, very far away from calling it ''really something''.
Are the teams that welcome Maldonado's backing afraid of telling him to get his shift together? Crazy to think as he looks back on his results, he himself doesn't see the need to buckle down and improve his racecraft. Figured having tasted victory once, he'd be on a mission to push for more. Maybe he's emulating the greats by driving through the car's problems...by actually driving through other cars and barriers!
+1 He did win 10 races in GP2 so it's not like he had never been put under that pressure before. He just did enough to win Spain because of the gift pole.. If he really excelled @ Spain because of his mastery of the track he should be dominating his team mates each time they race there which hasn't happened... Results in Spain. 2011: 15th (TM 17th) 2012: 1st (TM Ret) 2013: 14th (TM 16th) 2014: 15th (TM 8th) 2015: Retired (TM 8th) He has now been in F1 for 5 seasons (95 starts) and he has only finished in the points 14 times. In 2011 he did more or less the the same against Retiring Rubens. In 2012 Senna dominated him finishing in the points 10 times vs dodo's 5 (including fluke win). In 2013 he finished behind his rookie team mate in the points. In 2014 and 2015 he finished behind his team mate.
I believe most on here have long believed that those three were the best - apart from a few who think that one (or more) of them is just 'ordinary'.
The worst was when Maldonado crashed a Williams F1 car during a street demonstration in Caracas, apparently within seconds of beginning and Hugo Chavez the late President may have been there, in any case it is hugely embarassing. Obviously drivers have to be hyper cautious during street demos due to the media disaster any crash would generate but he still crashed. Note how long it takes him to switch off the engine, ridiculous. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTbOcIvTvko MS
Yea I don't think he's typically ever been slow in his career. He always struck me as a bit of a meathead but Alan Permane paints a very different picture and he's not usually one to sugarcoat anything. Pastor Maldonado is better than he gets credit for says Lotus team - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com
It's no good being quick if you can't modulate things to get around the circuit in one piece. Plenty of drivers are fast, but they must have some racecraft and guile, things he rarely demonstartes
In most cases, he can't even finish races for us to classify how fast/slow he is. he's an absolute disgrace, IMO.
Yup. Seems like Maldonado would've made an excellent test driver (when testing was still happening...). Good feedback, listens, not so many things to crash into and no race craft required.
Out of the 22 F1 drivers, he does seem to be one of the worst. Didn't crash so often this year, but also didn't drive very fast. He's dropped it quite a few times when going on the limit. If an F1 driver can't keep it together for many laps on the limit, he's just not very good.
This about sums it up then Kevin Magnussen set to replace Pastor Maldonado at Renault F1 team - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com
