180 replies to this topic

[sabjit]

No he doesn't.

 

That's like Jack the Ripper saying the police are ruining the quality of life by putting people in prison for murders.

[bonjon1979a]

It always seems to be Pastor. He's caused so many collisions since he came in. The problem is that his idea of an overtaking move is just sticking his car where it shouldn't be and hoping for the best. He has absolutely no guile whatsoever.

[Myrvold]

Time to kick him out! Yuji Ide was kicked out for far less.

[balmybaldwin]

I agree that PM deserves a ban, but not for this incident. Yes it was stupid, but I think it looked much worse than it was due to the wheel to wheel contact (note there was no contact of any significance between the lotus nose and the floor of the sauber). It was a poor manoever that should with current penalties warrant a drive through and perhaps a point on the license having said that the punishment that he got was about right.

So why does he deserve a ban?

Monaco, and Spa (i forget the year... 2011 or 12?) where he used his car as a weapon in anger. This has no place in motoracing and should attract at least a full year ban. That year Grosjean was over eager and dangerous, and got a ban, but Maldonado was barely punished for being malaciously dangerous (but not causing a car to get within an inch of Alonso's head). I know which one I would have banned.

The other reason is his attitude, and lack of remorse. He loves to point the finger at everything but himself and as a poster above said, you can't learn from your mistakes if you can't accept them as being your mistakes. Grojean was similarly defensive initially, but he did admit fault, and he is now a good driver and has kept his nose clean hes still got a bit more room for improvement


All that aside, I do feel that penalties are harsher than they should be, and more readily applied, and far too often 50/50racing incidents result in a penalty for one driver or other when the damage sustained is lesson enough not to do it again and I do think as a result drivers are a little less likely to push their luck.

[Ragnar668]

Yes, he's causing problems on track, but this doesn't mean he doesn't have a point.

[Jon83]

Other drivers manage to race just fine. 

[DS27]

Anyone else saying this has a fair point but PM should just STFU.

[Cyanide]

I'm trying to find a reason not to ban Maldonado from racing for life...

 

Nope, can't find any. Off with his head. 

[ExFlagMan]

He has a fair point.

 

Yes, he's causing problems on track, but this doesn't mean he doesn't have a point.

So what exact fair point does he have?
I fail to see how penalising drivers for inconsiderate/incompetent driving is more likely to ruin racing than actions that end up destroying another drivers race and then refusing to accept any blame for the incident.
How many excuses can one guy come up for why an incident is not his fault.
So far he has tried - it was the other driver's fault for turning in on me, and now - it was the new noses that caused the incident.

[mclarensmps]

Penalties exist for a reason. You can be a good racer without having to punt someone, or shove them off the track. Majority of the drivers on the grid are able to do this, but there are a few whose name pop up over and over again. 

Yes, you can't avoid racing incidents, but this new penalty system is designed for perennial offenders, not for people who have the odd racing incident or two.

 

This system only penalizes drivers like him, and although he is not going to openly admit it, his statements show that he is clearly aware of this. 

[KinetiK]

Yes, he's causing problems on track, but this doesn't mean he doesn't have a point.

The only point Maldonado has is on the top of his head.

[scheivlak]

Yes, he's causing problems on track, but this doesn't mean he doesn't have a point.

Three points even 

[DanardiF1]

Time to kick him out! Yuji Ide was kicked out for far less.

 

Yuji Ide also had far less money...

[baddog]

He is not slow, but he achieves his speed by taking stupid risks and never ever giving a toss about anyone else. Any half decent driver can go fast like that. In fact I would say every single driver in F1 could go faster if they acted like him, but they want to win races, championships, progress their careers, not destroy 15 chassis a year.. he doesnt seem to think any of that matters to him.

[paulogman]

He makes really stupid errors.
That contact with Gutierrez was completely avoidable.
The worst part is his reaction after the fact.
Everyone is hailing the racing and especially the close fought battle between Nico and Lewis.
And here comes pastor saying that penalties will ruin the racing and how no-one races close any more...
He is completely insulated from reality.

[ardbeg]

I think Sutil made an even worse move than Maldonado that race, but I think he escaped penalty? Anyway, Maldonado does not have a point, there is a difference between racing incidents and racing ignorance. He has been in F1 for some time now and is far from being a rookie. He have been given penalties, he have been "talked to", his antics has been analysed in media. Still the idea that maybe he is doing it wrong does not seem to reach his mind.  People who have spoken to him say he is not stupid. I'm not so sure.

[F1TestCatalunya]

#166

He has won championships, though.

[baddog]

He did win big in F2 I know, but I am not sufficiently informed to know how indicative that is. He will certainly be unlikely to win anything in F1 (and that one race was the very definition of a freak occurence). Should he in fact do so I will eat my words of course.

[balmybaldwin]

He did win big in F2 I know, but I am not sufficiently informed to know how indicative that is. He will certainly be unlikely to win anything in F1 (and that one race was the very definition of a freak occurence). Should he in fact do so I will eat my words of course.

From what ive seen of f2 all the drivers drive into each other

[syolase]

Maldonado: penalties will ruin racing

Everybody else: Maldonado will ruin racing

[Timothy]

Well, he's just stuck it into the pit entry barrier proving he is deserved of a threat specially dedicated to him.

Edited by Timothy, 18 April 2014 - 07:07.

[HoldenRT]

He's he going to blame for that one?  Just saw the replay.  Holy crap..

 

The barrier came out of nowhere!  It's the barrier fault.  His mechanics were embaressed and laughing.

Edited by HoldenRT, 18 April 2014 - 08:04.

[ExFlagMan]

I guess he is currently at about page 257 of the 'Big Book of Racing Driver Excuses' and still not found an answer for that one.

[Andy35]

An earlier he went of the road whilst looking at his wheel whilst going around a corner.

 

Definitely not a good day in the office for him

 

Andy

[FenderJaguar]

I watched the 2013 review the other day and realized I almost had forgotten how many crashes he caused last year.

[ExFlagMan]

Wrong - he definitely didn't cause any - it's true, it's true, it's true.

[paulogman]

wow, just saw both spin and crash from practice

 

no words

lol

[Absulute]

He is terrible.

[Juan Kerr]

Awwww luv him he's just a bit thick I think to be honest.

[SophieB]

No, this is getting closed. We don't have driver threads and we don't have threads that are designed to bash drivers. This one has been allowed to run because despite the unhelpful thread title, much of the discussion was about the incident from Bahrain and questioning if it was evidence of an underlying problem with Pastor's driving.

However, it's now just collating his misfortunes for its own sake or, looking back at it now, jeering at him and it has frequently stepped over the line into just being a bash thread. We never got any reports about the thread and that's a shame, it would have benefited from them. Still, those of you who later felt bad about the things you said because you misidentified Maldonado in that video, the guilt is to your credit and it shows where that sort of thing can lead.

Pastor Maldonado has no doubt done much to lose him friends in the paddock down the years and made many errors in judgement. However, there is a difference between being concerned about patterns of behaviour and lessons not being learned and conducting a witch hunt. So by all means if something else happens you want to discuss about Maldonado open a new thread, or if something else pertinent to the Bahrain incident happens, drop me a PM and I will open this again.

But unless that happens, closed.

[Clatter]

He has a fair point.

Maybe, but not in relation to the accident he caused which was down to sheer stupidity on his part.