1360 replies to this topic

[SpeedFanatic]

Pastor Maldonado.

Born in Maracay, Venezuela on March 9, 1985.

1993: Begins his racing career in karting winning several national championships.

2002: Winner of the winter championship for rookie drivers, Italian Formula Renault 2000.

2003: Winner of the winter championship, Italian Formula Renault 2000.

2004: Italian Formula Renault 2000 Champion(same championship won by Felipe Massa in 2000).

2006: Could have won the World Series by Renault(WSbR) championship with Draco Racing Team, but because of a controversial technical infringement lost his win and fastest lap at the Misano race(16 pts).Finished 3, 9 points behind the champion Alx Danielsson.

2007: Debuts in GP2 with team Trident Racing winning Monaco feature race(first driver to win back to back WSbR and GP2 races at Monaco). Was 5 in the standings when suffered an injury during his regular training program, breaking one of his collarbones when falling from his bicycle. Missed all the races from Turkey onwards.

2008: His first full season in GP2, this time with team Piquet Sports. Finished 5 in the standings with 60 points but only 4 points behind runner up Bruno Senna.

2010: GP2 Champion with team Rapax, setting a new record of six consecutive feature race wins(Turkey, Valencia, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Hungary and Spa-Francorchamps).

Favorite tracks: Monza, Spa-Francorchamps and Monaco.

Complete Career Info here.

Has been signed by AT&T Williams F1 team to compete in the 2011 Formula 1 Championship.

Pastor Maldonado Official Web Page

Pastor Maldonado Twitter Account

Suerte Pastor!

Edited by SpeedFanatic, 19 December 2010 - 12:16.

[Amphicar]

Pastor Maldonado.

Born in Maracay, Venezuela on March 9, 1985.


Suerte Pastor!

So next season Team Willie will have two South American drivers - a Brazillian and a Venezuelan. Off hand I can't think of a previous example of an F1 team having two South American drivers simultaneously - possibly the Fittipaldis with Copersucar or back in the days of Fangio & Gonzalez. Can anyone provide chapter & verse on this please.

[highdownforce]

So next season Team Willie will have two South American drivers - a Brazillian and a Venezuelan. Off hand I can't think of a previous example of an F1 team having two South American drivers simultaneously - possibly the Fittipaldis with Copersucar or back in the days of Fangio & Gonzalez. Can anyone provide chapter & verse on this please.

Other examples out of my head:

Toleman: Ceccoto(VEN) x Senna(BRA)
Benetton: Piquet (BRA) x Moreno (BRA)
Williams: Montoya (COL) x Pizzonia(BRA)

[Fastcake]

Thanks for his racing backstory, interesting to know what he's done.

[noikeee]

2009 conveniently omitted!

Pastor's quick, and freakishly good at Monaco, but is still inconsistent. Even after winning an unprecedented 5 consecutive feature races in GP2, he suddenly faded away...

[midgrid]

Other examples out of my head:

Toleman: Ceccoto(VEN) x Senna(BRA)
Benetton: Piquet (BRA) x Moreno (BRA)
Williams: Montoya (COL) x Pizzonia(BRA)

Forti: Pedro Diniz (Brazil) & Roberto Moreno (Brazil)
Fittipaldi-Copersucar: Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil) & Ingo Hoffmann (Brazil)/Alex Ribeiro (Brazil)
Theodore: Roberto Guerrero (Colombia) & Johnny Cecotto (Venezuela)
Brabham: Carlos Pace (Brazil)/Wilson Fittipaldi (Brazil) & Carlos Reutemann (Argentina)

Edited by midgrid, 17 December 2010 - 14:22.

[SpeedFanatic]

2009 conveniently omitted!

I knew someone would bring it up, so why bother.

[highdownforce]

Forti: Pedro Diniz (Brazil) & Roberto Moreno (Brazil)
Fittipaldi-Copersucar: Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil) & Ingo Hoffmann (Brazil)/Alex Ribeiro (Brazil)
Theodore: Roberto Guerrero (Colombia) & Johnny Cecotto (Venezuela)
Brabham: Carlos Pace (Brazil)/Wilson Fittipaldi (Brazil) & Carlos Reutemann (Argentina)

Thanks for the other examples, I was thinking about it after Coopersuccar only, but I've forgoten the Fortis of course.

[ryan86]

Also conveniently omits him hitting the marshal in Monaco one year, though since I've not seen the incident, but he was given a ban.

Saying that he's obviously got some speed, but I don't think he's anything more than a midfielder.

[Gyan]

He is an unwelcome addition as far as I'm concerned.

[billm99uk]

2002: Winter Series Renault Champion.

2003: Winter Series Renault Champion.

Which winter series? British? Or does Venezuela have a FR winter series?

[highdownforce]

Your friend... http://en.wikipedia....aldonado#Career

[SpeedFanatic]

Also conveniently omits him hitting the marshal in Monaco one year, though since I've not seen the incident, but he was given a ban.

Saying that he's obviously got some speed, but I don't think he's anything more than a midfielder.

For those interested:
Maldonado Monaco incident

[SpeedFanatic]

2002: Winter Series Renault Champion.

2003: Winter Series Renault Champion.

Which winter series? British? Or does Venezuela have a FR winter series?;)

2002: Winner of the winter championship for rookie drivers, Italian Formula Renault.
2003: Winner of the Italian winter championship, Italian Formula Renault?.

More Info here.

Edited by SpeedFanatic, 17 December 2010 - 17:19.

[teejay]

2009 may of been over looked, but its been said time and time again - success in GP2 does not promise F1 success.. nor does GP2 failure mean F1 failure.

[billm99uk]

He is an unwelcome addition as far as I'm concerned.

Reminds me of a review of the latest Tron movie that pointed out that, unusually, it started off with a kind of reverse goodwill, or "badwill" because of the over-hyping of the original. I guess Pastor comes into F1 with a fair amount of this "badwill" because of the Hulkenberg thing, and I wonder how long (if ever) it'll take him to get over it....

[Gyan]

Reminds me of a review of the latest Tron movie that pointed out that, unusually, it started off with a kind of reverse goodwill, or "badwill" because of the over-hyping of the original. I guess Pastor comes into F1 with a fair amount of this "badwill" because of the Hulkenberg thing, and I wonder how long (if ever) it'll take him to get over it....

I'm more bitter because I support Hulkenberg. So until Hulkenberg doesn't get a drive, it's curses for Maldonado.

[DavidJoeF1]

Saying that he's obviously got some speed, but I don't think he's anything more than a midfielder.

Funny that, I remember similar comments about Nigel Mansell!

[DavidJoeF1]

I'm more bitter because I support Hulkenberg. So until Hulkenberg doesn't get a drive, it's curses for Maldonado.

I think The Hulk - he is tall enough - will find a seat at Force India. A driver of his calibre is gold for a team such as Veejay's.

[pkenny]

On the Monaco incident, I think he hit a marshal under waved yellow flags (though this was disputed). There was talk of him being banned for life from racing in Monaco by the ACM but this never happened. It would have been equivalent to banning him from open-wheel racing outside the US. Never heard how the marshal fared but hope he recovered. Being a marshal at Monaco is very dangerous, so requires absolute adherence to flag controls.

[midgrid]

I've found a video of a similar incident involving Maldonado on YouTube - did this happen before or after his crash in Monaco?

[SpeedFanatic]

On the Monaco incident, I think he hit a marshal under waved yellow flags (though this was disputed). There was talk of him being banned for life from racing in Monaco by the ACM but this never happened. It would have been equivalent to banning him from open-wheel racing outside the US. Never heard how the marshal fared but hope he recovered. Being a marshal at Monaco is very dangerous, so requires absolute adherence to flag controls.

This "life ban" was a mistake by autosport, it never happened and autosport apologized for it. See here(subscription required)

Edited by SpeedFanatic, 24 December 2010 - 06:50.

[HAM]

How old is he now? 54? Hulkenburg is 4 x more talented and is young, but hey now Williams gets more money and that is apparently more important.

Hope Hulkenberg gets a seat somewhere and that he overtakes the Williams cars a lot, will be sweet to watch.

Edited by HAM, 21 December 2010 - 01:49.

[marcoferrari]

How old is he now? 54? Hulkenburg is 4 x more talented and is young, but hey now Williams gets more money and that is apparently more important.

Hope Hulkenberg gets a seat somewhere and that he overtakes the Williams cars a lot, will be sweet to watch.

Hulkenberg and overtaking? He passed only 6 cars from the established teams in a whole year! Even Timo Glock was attacking his position in terms of overtaking...

[primer]

F1's next Sato, Pastor Mcdonaldo.

2008: His first full season in GP2, this time with team Piquet Sports. Finished 5 in the standings with 60 points but only 4 points behind runner up Bruno Senna.

2010: GP2 Champion with team Rapax, setting a new record of six consecutive feature race wins(Turkey, Valencia, Silverstone, Hockenheim, Hungary and Spa-Francorchamps).

[LuckyStrike1]

How old is he now? 54? Hulkenburg is 4 x more talented and is young, but hey now Williams gets more money and that is apparently more important.

Hope Hulkenberg gets a seat somewhere and that he overtakes the Williams cars a lot, will be sweet to watch.

He is 25. 26 next year.

[DavidJoeF1]

I'm starting to dislike Hulkenberg due to his fanboys polluting the forum. What did he do to deserve such loyalty?


I say welcome Pastor. Show us what you got.

Dont be so dismissive of Nico's fans. He has performed incredibly well and without being a menace at any point. He debuted in f1 with less than 500 miles of testing [compared to Hamilton's over 7,000]. His teammate was the most experienced driver in f1 who also finished third in the 2009 WDC.

Under such difficult circumstances to then win pole position at a track that is his teammate's backyard and his performance in the race so impressive. I'd say that Nico in a good car would be competitive with the best in f1 today and no wonder he has attracted a loyal fan base.

[Brian O Flaherty]

He is 25. 26 next year.

and 27 the year after.

[kosmic33]

This Just in!

Great News
Since i've already proved i'm willing to spend lots of daddys money to fulfill my dream and become an F1 driver, I've decided that the next step in my journey is to have lots of fans. So daddy has offered to pay €5 a week to everyone who follows me on twitter!
Surely if you can buy your way to the top, buying support shouldnt be too hard

Why didnt I think of that???????

[billm99uk]

Since i've already proved i'm willing to spend lots of daddys money to fulfill my dream and become an F1 driver...

It's not daddys, it's El Presidente's

[Brian O Flaherty]

Dont be so dismissive of Nico's fans.

There's a big and important difference between a fan and a fanboy. I would regard myself as a fan of Hulkenberg but I'm not petty that I would 'hate' or dismiss Maldonado because he has taken his seat. Hopefully Hulkenberg will find his way into F1 next season or certainly in the next few years but the fact of the matter is that while Pastor comes in with some money, he DID actually win the GP2 series - not buy it - so he does come in on merit despite what some would have us believe. Good luck to Maldonado and good luck to Hulkenberg too.

[SpeedFanatic]

There's a big and important difference between a fan and a fanboy. I would regard myself as a fan of Hulkenberg but I'm not petty that I would 'hate' or dismiss Maldonado because he has taken his seat. Hopefully Hulkenberg will find his way into F1 next season or certainly in the next few years but the fact of the matter is that while Pastor comes in with some money, he DID actually win the GP2 series - not buy it - so he does come in on merit despite what some would have us believe. Good luck to Maldonado and good luck to Hulkenberg too.

[SpeedFanatic]

This Just in!

That's not the real maldonado twitter account, and no ammount of money will ever buy Ricardo Rosset a F1 seat.

Edited by SpeedFanatic, 21 December 2010 - 13:37.

[noikeee]

That's not the real maldonado twitter account

[SpeedFanatic]

What i am saying is that @pastormaldonado do exist as a twitter account but it is a "fake" one, you smart arse.

[kosmic33]

That's not the real maldonado twitter account, and no ammount of money will ever buy Ricardo Rosset a F1 seat.

But it already did - he competed in 33 (I think) GP's in the late 90's

Obviously thats not a real post from Pass Moremoney, sorry, Patsor Maldonados twitter......

[SpeedFanatic]

But it already did - he competed in 33 (I think) GP's in the late 90's

Obviously thats not a real post from Pass Moremoney, sorry, Patsor Maldonados twitter......

I didn't know that, but it is interesting that you have choosen a driver who drove for the Mastercard Lola F1 Team and could not even match Jos Verstapen for your joke.

81 days to go.

Edited by SpeedFanatic, 21 December 2010 - 17:08.

[billm99uk]

I didn't know that, but it is interesting that you have choosen a driver who drove for the Mastercard Lola F1 Team and could not even match Jos Verstapen for your joke.

81 days to go.

Remember Rosset was second in F3000, so it's not that improbable a reference

[Wheels23]

Ahh Rosset, funny guy.

Anyway I hope Pastor does really well and Williams actually gets a podium since Rosberg in Singapore 2008?

[SpeedFanatic]

Xevi Pujolar to be Pastor race engineer.

[billm99uk]

Xevi Pujolar to be Pastor race engineer.

At Williams, he formerly worked with the likes of Mark Webber, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher and most recently Kazuki Nakajima, and this year will engineer fellow Spanish speaker Pastor Maldonado, according to virutasf1.com.


Should come in handy since Pastor's English is a bit rubbish still...

[DanardiF1]

At Williams, he formerly worked with the likes of Mark Webber, Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher and most recently Kazuki Nakajima, and this year will engineer fellow Spanish speaker Pastor Maldonado, according to virutasf1.com.


Should come in handy since Pastor's English is a bit rubbish still...

I still think they'll encourage him to improve it though. If you think about the language levels of some of the F1 drivers (Alonso, Rosberg, Massa, even Schumacher are all polyglots), then Pastor, along with people like Petrov and Kobayashi (it's harder for these two however seeing as their native language doesn't use the Latin alphabet), is lagging behind.

[SpeedFanatic]

Winter testing is over and Pastor seems quite confident that he can do well:

I feel more than ready to start my first season in Formula One. I have never been to Melbourne before but we’ve done a good amount of testing which will add to the time I have spent learning the circuit in our simulator. I am now just looking forward to going racing. It will be a very exciting moment. My aim this weekend is to get a solid finish, and to score some points.

With about a race weekend worth of testing(750 Km) due mainly to reliability issues with the FW33 before his first race, i don't understand how he can say he is more than ready to go racing. Any way good luck to him, i think he is going to need it.

[billm99uk]

With about a race weekend worth of testing(750 Km) due mainly to reliability issues with the FW33 before his first race, i don't understand how he can say he is more than ready to go racing. Any way good luck to him, i think he is going to need it.

Well, he's a racing driver. Overconfidence comes with the territory

[Levike]

Well, he's a racing driver. Overconfidence comes with the territory ;)

[TFLB]

I think that this thread finally deserves to be reinvigorated now that we are at Pastor's favourite track. He finally looks to be getting the hang of F1 now.

[Collective]

I think that this thread finally deserves to be reinvigorated now that we are at Pastor's favourite track. He finally looks to be getting the hang of F1 now.

He had terrible luck in his first two races, a dismal race pace in the next two, and once again a dismal race pace in Barcelona, but his great Q2 session helped him save face.

The Williams looks fast over one lap, which will help them in qualifying. The fact that Pastor eats this track for breakfast will put him in Q3, you heard it here first. The problem is the race pace, but since the tyres are not degrading that much and the circuit is tight, overtaking will be next to impossible, so they have an advantage there. It all depends in qualifying. I predict points for Maldonado here.

[Bunchies]

Hopefully he will improve his showing at this race, considering his experience with it.

Edited by Bunchies, 26 May 2011 - 22:41.

[Kubiccia]

Pastor's Q2 lap in Barcelona was very flamboyant.

This guys is fast and doing better than the overated Hulkenberg, imo