139 replies to this topic

[emmanuelrubi]

 

 

Watch this P2 lap from Maldonado and tell me he's not good enough for F1:

 

Ok now watch this compilation and tell me he is good enough to be using a team space instead of letting good drivers have an opportunity:

 

[emmanuelrubi]

So Maldonado made its own luck by not giving space to Grosjean which led to him breaking his rear wing and therefore costing him time in pits and then getting retired this is Karma at its finest.

[DutchQuicksilver]

We can say a lot about Maldonado, but the amount of times he was driving in the points before on track issues ends his races have been quite a lot. Not only in his Lotus days, but also countless times back in 2012 in the Williams. He has absolutely no race skills unfortunately.

[Disgrace]

The contact was really minimal though. Like when Vettel needed a front wing change for simply running over a kerb in Bahrain, the punishment exaggerated the scale of the crime.

[arial]

Has anyone else noticed that Grosjean has almost twice as many points as Kvyat since the beggining of 2014?

[eREr]

It is really sad to see that RG is sidelined (no FP1s, no in season testing for him), while his teammate with $$$ never handover his car to anybody, still he is continouosly crashing and having racing incidents and brainfades. Still RG delivers the points to the team. Funny.

[sopa]

Grosjean is really doing a neat job in the car. Consistently delivering points. Clear difference with Maldonado...

[thiscocks]

Maldonado was in Williams in 2012 and not LOTUS.

 

That's Grosjean.

Pardon?

[jimjimjeroo]

RoGro is a daddy again!

[TIPO61]

He's a Clown...and a bad one at that.

[emmanuelrubi]

I told you once and i told you twice picking number 13 for racing is not a good idea, did the hard braking in the first corner had anything to do with his retirement ?

[Wheels23]

F1 hates Pastor

 

 

 

He's awesome though.

[DutchQuicksilver]

Too bad about Maldonado's brake errors, he could have finished 7th today.

[ninetyzero]

Too bad about Maldonado's brake errors, he could have finished 7th today.

 

Or he could have stuffed it in the barrier at some point later on...

[emmanuelrubi]

Or he could have stuffed it in the barrier at some point later on...

 

Most likely wouldn't be the barrier but another driver. 

[ninetyzero]

Most likely wouldn't be the barrier but another driver. 

 

Maybe another driver AND the barrier. I'm sad that his brake problems deprived us of this spectacular accident.

[Wheels23]

Maybe another driver AND the barrier. I'm sad that his brake problems deprived us of this spectacular accident.

 

 

Y'all  hatin' on the great man Maldonado.

[Nemo1965]

What I want to say in Maldo's and Grosjean's defense: I think a pattern is developing here when the Lotus cars are having brake-problems, it is immediately very, very bad. During the race, Lewis also had to manage his brakes, but somehow at Mercedes they are (often) able to solve it. With Lotus and the Mercedes-engine, I am feeling, when braking problems start it goes quickly downhill from there. The incident with Maldo and Button in China, the erratic braking of Grosjean and Verstappen jr. crashing into him (which, again, was a racing incident IMHO), seems to imply a pattern for me.

[sopa]

I appreciate Grosjean's consistency, but have to say he is not very fast right now. Speed-wise Maldonado has at least been a match to him not only this year, but also second half of 2014. Though Maldonado is fast, it doesn't bode well for Grosjean and I think he would be shown up by a top driver, who is both fast and consistent.

 

However, I do think RoGro had sort of a peak form in the second half of 2013 and first half of 2014, when he had the measure of Raikkonen and blew Maldonado away, also in terms of speed.

[HeidfeldsBeard]

What I want to say in Maldo's and Grosjean's defense: I think a pattern is developing here when the Lotus cars are having brake-problems, it is immediately very, very bad. During the race, Lewis also had to manage his brakes, but somehow at Mercedes they are (often) able to solve it. With Lotus and the Mercedes-engine, I am feeling, when braking problems start it goes quickly downhill from there. The incident with Maldo and Button in China, the erratic braking of Grosjean and Verstappen jr. crashing into him (which, again, was a racing incident IMHO), seems to imply a pattern for me.

 

It does seem there's something fishy going on with the brakes on the Lotus, or more specifically the way Maldonado has them set up. His retirement in Malaysia was brake related and there are suggestions his botched pit entry in China was down to brake problems before his incident with Button.

[taran]

I appreciate Grosjean's consistency, but have to say he is not very fast right now. Speed-wise Maldonado has at least been a match to him not only this year, but also second half of 2014. Though Maldonado is fast, it doesn't bode well for Grosjean and I think he would be shown up by a top driver, who is both fast and consistent.

 

However, I do think RoGro had sort of a peak form in the second half of 2013 and first half of 2014, when he had the measure of Raikkonen and blew Maldonado away, also in terms of speed.

 

I think Grosjean's reputation was unduly inflated when he did so well at Lotus in 2013. In hindsight, one has to question how fast Raikkonen truly is since his return to F1. Since being teamed up with true aces like Alonso and Vettel, he has mostly been mediocre. He reminds me of a joke told about Mika Salo: Salo is like a cheap watch, he is either too fast or too slow but never consistantly.

 

So IMO Raikkonen's 2014 and 2015 poor performance against known quantities puts a different light on his performance with the Lotus. Perhaps that car was capable af much more than either Raikkonen or Grosjean showed?

 

Certainly if Maldonado is now showing that Grosjean isn't all that.....

[ionutf1fan]

Edited by ionutf1fan, 01 June 2015 - 07:05.

[eREr]

I appreciate Grosjean's consistency, but have to say he is not very fast right now. Speed-wise Maldonado has at least been a match to him not only this year, but also second half of 2014. Though Maldonado is fast, it doesn't bode well for Grosjean and I think he would be shown up by a top driver, who is both fast and consistent.

 

However, I do think RoGro had sort of a peak form in the second half of 2013 and first half of 2014, when he had the measure of Raikkonen and blew Maldonado away, also in terms of speed.

 

Speed is one thing, racecraft is another. But IIRC the "qualification battle" between the two drivers is 5:1 to RG. So who has the speed? Anyway could you tell me who is sitting in the box in FP1s? Is it RG or PM?

[sopa]

Speed is one thing, racecraft is another. But IIRC the "qualification battle" between the two drivers is 5:1 to RG. So who has the speed? Anyway could you tell me who is sitting in the box in FP1s? Is it RG or PM?

 

Qualifying battle is certainly in Romain's favour, but in terms of race speed Maldonado is closer. He was in front of China before starting making mistakes. And there are more cases like these.

 

Overall Grosjean is better than Maldonado, for sure. I was comparing Grosjean to a potential match-up with a top driver.

[eREr]

Qualifying battle is certainly in Romain's favour, but in terms of race speed Maldonado is closer. He was in front of China before starting making mistakes. And there are more cases like these.

 

Overall Grosjean is better than Maldonado, for sure. I was comparing Grosjean to a potential match-up with a top driver.

 

In China PM started the pit stops and RG's pit stop was very-very slow (around 5s). As a result PM overtook RG. China is not the best example in this comparision.

[SealTheDiffuser]

race speed Maldo clearly better than GRO or BOT

[SealTheDiffuser]

in Canada Lotus self engineered BBW will DNF both cars early in the race sadly...

[RockBrocaine]

Well, Pastor seems to have his mojo back. I'm going to predict as the E23 gets faster we will see some more "daring" moves by Pastor. He's really patting himself on the back for this one

 

Pastor's response to driving wheel-to-wheel with Verstappen....

 "He was a bit... let's say not aggressive, but he wasn't really respecting the rules.

"You must leave some space for the other car and he was not respecting that.

"But when I saw him doing this I said I need to be more careful but more aggressive."

 

   

 

I like Pastor for some weird reason, but he just doesn't seem to learn. Oh well, I enjoyed the drama either way.

Edited by RockBrocaine, 21 June 2015 - 18:19.

[DutchQuicksilver]

Pastor's doing okay, but Grosjean has had issues both in Canada and Austria. He would have finished in front of Pastor in both races.

 

Still, looks like Pastor's bad luck has transferred into Grosjean.

[chunder27]

I think that is one of Pastors best drive sin F1, including that amazing win.

 

He drive with heart, seems to really enjoy that car and even though he is a ltitle ragged still, there is no denying the lad can pass.

And inthe interview at the end with Beeb, you are ust seeing a different, more confident man.

[Anderis]

Pastor's doing okay, but Grosjean has had issues both in Canada and Austria. He would have finished in front of Pastor in both races.

I'm not so sure of that. In Austria there was very little between them in 1st stint and Pastor would have a faster tyre for 2nd stint.

[HeidfeldsBeard]

Pastor's doing okay, but Grosjean has had issues both in Canada and Austria. He would have finished in front of Pastor in both races.

 

Still, looks like Pastor's bad luck has transferred into Grosjean.

 

In Canada it was Grosjean's own error so that can't count as him beating Pastor even if he was looking like edging him out. It's happened the other way around plenty of times...

 

I'm not so sure of that. In Austria there was very little between them in 1st stint and Pastor would have a faster tyre for 2nd stint.

 

Grosjean was about 4 seconds behind Verstappen (but on the same Soft Tyres as him) when his gearbox went and would have probably gained a couple of tenths per lap - putting all three of them on the same patch of track by the end of the race. Could have got very juicy and I wouldn't want to predict who would have come out on top.

[Marklar]

http://hasmaldonadocrashedtoday.com/

 

Knew this site? It hasn't been updating now for 99 days. I think the only time it wasn't updating for so long time was in the winter breaks.

 

Definitely his best season so far.

[Baddoer]

That DRS thing for Pastor is not new. Watch his overtake on Di Resta in Singapore 2012 or even his pole lap in Spain - he almost lost it in the last corner with DRS open.

[redraven9]

Maldonado is my 'underdog' favorite. I always cheer for the guy.

[CurbPainter]

 

Grosjean was about 4 seconds behind Verstappen (but on the same Soft Tyres as him) when his gearbox went and would have probably gained a couple of tenths per lap - putting all three of them on the same patch of track by the end of the race. Could have got very juicy and I wouldn't want to predict who would have come out on top.

 

I would say, Max would have parked his car on top of Grosjean and Pastor being Pastor would have planted his car on top of them...so Pastor would have been the top car.

[HeadFirst]

http://hasmaldonadocrashedtoday.com/

 

Knew this site? It hasn't been updating now for 99 days. I think the only time it wasn't updating for so long time was in the winter breaks.

 

Definitely his best season so far.

 

Certainly seems to be making better decisions, and not losing pace.

[Marklar]

As we have the mid season break now I did for the team battles some stats about the season so far....

                       Grosjean             Maldonado
Points                 23                   12
Race battle            6                    2
Race battle (w/o DNF)  2                    1
Quali battle           9                    1
Best race result       8                    8
Best quali result      5                    6
Laps complete          484                  411
Position change Lap 1  +1                   -9
Pos change overall     +7                   +3
Worst race position    17                   19
Best race position     3                    5
Average race position  10.38                12.52
Average starting pos   9.4                  11.5
Average quali gap              -0.411s

[Dan333SP]

So I stumbled into this last night-

 

 

I love that someone took the time to make that, it's really kinda great. Makes me realize I'll miss Pastor when he leaves the sport.

[Marklar]

Just for a formality. The most clearest quali battle of the season....

Average gap: +0.415 (Advantage Grosjean)
Median gap:  +0.329 (Advantage Grosjean)
Official quali battle: 17-2 (Advantage Grosjean)
Quali battle (w/o retirements): 18-1 (Advantage Grosjean) - in their only session together today Grosjean was faster