Maldonado not to blame for crash – Lotus

2015 F1 season

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Pastor Maldonado’s crash which ended Lotus’s participation in the final pre-season test of 2015 was caused by a “braking-related issue”, according to the team’s technical director Nick Chester.

“He wasn’t able to slow sufficiently into turn four and the car was damaged,” Chester explained. “There was nothing Pastor or any driver could have done to avoid this accident which was systems related and we’re investigating thoroughly to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”

“It was a shame to end the day early,” said Maldonado, “but that was the only issue we’ve had like this during testing so we can look to the positive that we have a lot of information to take the car in the right direction.”

“My braking was compromised coming into turn four, meaning I went off the track and hit the barriers. I was able to brake and slow, just not as much as the maximum otherwise possible.

“The car was not too badly damaged and I am fine, but it’s a shame we had this issue as we would have been looking at running the softer tyres in the afternoon and putting in some fast laps.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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16 comments on “Maldonado not to blame for crash – Lotus”

  1. Oh Maldonado….deja-vu all over again.

    Wait a sec- ain’t maldonado ‘bad patron’ in Spanish? Guess he’s just living up to the name:-)

    1. Read the article before making your fingers work.

      1. pastaman (@)
        1st March 2015, 18:30

        Apparently he couldn’t even be bothered to read the title

        1. I can see how this might be true, but how many times have we seen this headline in connection with Maldonado? (Crash not his fault).

  2. Im not so sure about this, if you check the Maldonado fansite it clearly says “Reason: Maldonaderp”.

    1. Their philosophy presumably being to not let the facts get in the way of making fun of someone.

    2. @Gabbe, I would wager that the people behind that website have simply assumed that, because it is Maldonado, it was his fault – irrespective of whether it is actually his fault.

      Just look at how people immediately threw abuse at Kobayashi in 2014 when he collided with Massa in the Australian GP – only for it to transpire that Kobayashi was an innocent party and in fact crashed into Massa due to a braking system failure (leading Massa to then publicly apologise to Kobayashi for criticising him).

      By the sounds of things, the comments from the team seem to hint that the cause of the accident might be similar to the Kobayashi incident, as it happens, which was a failure of the energy recovery systems on the rear axle causing the rear brakes to become overloaded and therefore fail.

    3. It’s updated now.

  3. Jack (@jackisthestig)
    1st March 2015, 18:52

    I was at the corner when it happened (first F1 crash I’ve seen in the flesh) and there was definately a problem with the car, he didn’t brake at all late and never really attempted to turn in. I think it was on his out lap aswel, I don’t recall him coming past the lap previously.

    Too bad I had my e-cig in hand rather than my camera.

  4. This is the year that Maldonado shakes off the albatross. Hoping for a Lotus resurgence.

  5. The sad irony of it is that Maldonado has crashed on his own merits so frequently that someone has made a fan site for it, and that his team has to be quick and issue a statement about his innocence on the rare occasion that he is actually not the cause of the accident, or at least they claim he wasn’t;-) And several competent drivers are sitting out this season, which justifies that the fan site don’t get confused by facts above the obvious: Maldonado crashed.

    1. The obvious is: you just dislike maldonado so, no matter what they say you will always be against him.

  6. So Alonso loses control in testing and Maldonado is in an accident that’s not his fault. I’m guessing Chilton for WDC and people will start talking positively about Hamilton.

  7. Not surprising, Maldonado has never been involved in an accident that was his fault…

  8. I love Maldonado… Only character in f1 bar Kimi

    1. I disagree, you only have to read this website to see peoples personalities. I think Ricciardo has a great personality… And while I don’t understand him, Lewis has tonnes of personality. Button is a laugh, and enjoys pranks. Kimi stole his personality from Hakkinen and even Vettel has personality when he’s not so serious.
      However, 9 out of 10 interviews on telecasts you see with the drivers involve cliche answers, hence why they appear to have no personalities. Even Kimi sounds boring when he’s explaining why the car doesn’t work the way he wants it to and starts getting into details, on the few occasions he does.

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