Maldonado predicts ‘difficult weekend’ for Lotus

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

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The long straights and tight corners of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve will put Lotus at a disadvantage this weekend, Pastor Maldonado believes.

“Top speed and slow corners are probably the weakest points of our car now,” said Maldonado.

“It could be a difficult weekend for the team, for sure. We are not expecting to be at the top, simply because of the type of track and how we understand our car and its performance strengths and weaknesses. It’s not very aggressive on the tyres either, so we’ll see how it is when we head out to track.”

Although Romain Grosjean equalled the team’s best result of the season so far with eighth in Monaco, the team found its car was less competitive around the street circuit and failed to reach Q3 as it had in Spain.

“Anything can happen and our guys are all working very hard to adapt the car to find more traction in the slow corners and squeeze out some more top speed,” Maldonado added.

He expects the team will be closer to the front at “circuits where you need a lot of downforce like Silverstone, Budapest, maybe Hockenheim as well”.

“These kinds of circuits can be more efficient for our car. We’re improving every day, so with more time we will be back at the sharp end of the grid and not only at preferred tracks.”

2014 Canadian Grand Prix

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Image © Lotus/LAT

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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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58 comments on “Maldonado predicts ‘difficult weekend’ for Lotus”

  1. Maldonado predicts ‘difficult weekend’ for Lotus

    “Because I’ll crash again as you intentionally created problems in my car on the Monaco grid!”

    1. @neelv27
      Danger factor part of Montreal’s appeal – Vergne
      Maldonado predicts ‘difficult’ weekend for Lotus
      Coincidence? I think not…

  2. “I’ll crash because Lotus don’t pay me.”

    1. You’re right, they don’t pay him…..

      He pays them.

  3. and how we understand our car and its performance strengths and weaknesses.

    … car flipping is good, but we are not yet fully wall-proof.

  4. Difficult weekend for the team most probably… but we wont know how tough we weekend will be for Madonado untill we see how hard he crashes…

    1. …..and who he takes out with him.

      1. Perhaps F1 Fanatic should start a contest for the session he crashes out of, the lap number if it’s a race and the victim(s).

  5. Maldonado is on his way to earn a reputation even worse than De Cesaris’ reputation used to be back in the days.

    1. @roald For sure.

    2. De Cesaris never really endangered marshals, though. Maldonado is trying to become a mixture of de Cesaris, Alliot and Arnoux in his later days. Still, de Cesaris and Arnoux showed a lot of promise once, too.

    3. @roald Grosjean, Scheckter, Hunt, Irvine, Häkkinen, they all had reputations for causing incident early in their career… Difference is though they at least showed some signs of changing after being criticised…

    4. @roald @npf1 @craig-o I haven’t seen too much footage of De Cesaris. But I am pretty much sure he didn’t crash when there was no one on track in demo events .

  6. With his ability to forsee the future it stays a riddle as to why teams don’t want him.

  7. How funny! Any exclusive Maldonado article turns into a joke-fest. No one takes him seriously! :)

  8. Daniel (@collettdumbletonhall)
    3rd June 2014, 11:36

    It will always be a difficult weekend for the team when Maldonado is about.

  9. I don’t remember a driver ever getting this much hate as Maldonado. I for one sincerely hope that he gets on top of his issues and returns to form to show just how much of a great and ultimately fast driver he is, because he has without doubt shown glimpses of this throughout his F1 career. I love when I see people criticising a driver, and then they have to eat their words to a certain extent after witnessing a great performance by them, ala Perez in Bahrain or Vettel in Spain this year. It’s always a nice feeling of satisfaction.

    1. Of all the jokes here, I think this is the funniest.

      1. @maroonjack I almost choked in hot coffee in reading your comment. Well done sir, well done :)

      2. Jan (@yancheelaa)
        3rd June 2014, 17:47

        :)))) this is best comment i have ever written…maaan…and probably the funniest think written on the internet today :D

        1. Jan (@yancheelaa)
          3rd June 2014, 17:48

          * thing…sorry :)

        2. Jan (@yancheelaa)
          4th June 2014, 9:38

          * not written but read…sorry again :DD

      3. @maroonjack I’m afraid I’m going to have to join @seabass in a formal complaint as you made me choke on my tea! LOL

    2. I’m far from a Maldonado fan but even i must admit the string of jokes on every Maldonado article is taking it a bit far. As i write this, every comment apart from yours is a joke, even the reply to your comment (which is admittedly a bit funny). But a year ago i would have put Grosjean in a similar category so you never know how things might turn around (Maldonado has yet to show whether he can learn from his mistakes though).

      1. @keithedin: I’d say that’s very charitable. In three years Maldonado has shown no ability to learn from his mistakes, and he’s had plenty of opportunities.

        @insilico: I’m not seeing a lot of hate for Maldonado, just humour at his expense. In a way that’s worse, as it seems to indicate that people don’t take him seriously enough to hate him.

        My opinion is that Maldonado has shown good speed but it’s never been consistent and has usually been overshadowed by poor judgement.

      2. I agree. It’s like a cycle. I still remember how Grosjean was bashed and ridiculed. To me, ANY driver that was able to win a race in Formula 1 (even in that despicable place, the Barcelona track) deserves respect. Maldonado is highly inconstant and seems unable to learn from mistakes, and that is ruining his career, but the trend is predictable and not even funny anymore, really.

        1. If it’s that predictable (and it really is), why doesn’t he do something about it? There are driver coaches and sports psychologists out there.

    3. @insilico I get your point and I’m not a big fan of these jokes myself as they are often driven by myths. Drivers are often labelled as “arrogant”, “slow”, “great” or “crash-prone” but the truth is usually not as simplistic. And if I like a driver, I just can’t stand disrespectful comments about him.

      Unfortunately Maldonado really doesn’t seem to learn from his mistakes (he’s definitely not a rookie anymore) even if he is a quick driver with a lot of potential. I don’t think he would stand a chance of staying in F1 without the support of PDVSA. I hope that he and his team string together a perfect weekend now and then so that we can see him on the podium again. But I just don’t believe that Maldonado will ever become a constant race winner or a “safe pair of hands”.

    4. He hasn’t earned our joke-free-posts yet.

    5. I wouldn’t say this is hate; most people make fun of someone or something on the internet without actually hating something. My personal top 10 ‘hate’ list would not include Maldonado, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy these jokes!

      I’d be a lot more worried if people were calling for his head and on most other forums they’re calling Maldonado a ‘no good paydriver’, while F1 Fanatics seem to keep the jokes to him crashing a lot.

  10. Difficult weekend? Yes, the Wall of Champions will bankrupt the team.

  11. Mal – donado = Bad Donald in Engish. Sums him up for me!

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      3rd June 2014, 16:22

      @maestrointhesky no my friend, it’s “badly donated” if you split his last name…

      1. I think that’s what PDVSA put down on their tax return…
        Badly Donated : $xx million

  12. Lucas Wilson (@full-throttle-f1)
    3rd June 2014, 12:44

    Every weekend is difficult if your Maldonado.

  13. Once maldonado raced in F1 and light came second.

    1. whenever maldonado raced he obviously finished first and light came second.

      1. He obviously punted the light off the road, for sure.

        1. The only thing Maldonado reaches faster than light are walls and runoff areas

  14. Because You will kiss the wall again,won’t you?
    Or you will hit Esteban Guttierez or the another driver because they are slow?

  15. I’d expect jokes and mockery of Maldonado on other F1 websites but when even (generally) rational members of F1Fanatic are doing this, it just shows how incorrigible Maldonado is.

    1. Yeah, this place is generally one of the tamer websites in terms of comments (I think there’s a bit more respect and etiquette here.

      I wanted to post a joke but it looks like the whole community has beat me to it. I’ll save it for later.

      1. So… I’ll expect to read on Monday!

  16. Lewis :Pastor I have a job for you
    Pastor :Who is the driver ?
    Lewis :Nico
    Pastor : Ok leave it to me .

  17. Is Maldonado allowed to crash into the Wall even if he isnt a champion? Maybe he will throw Alonso, Button, Vettel or Hamilton there?

    1. @austus Actually he is the 2010 GP2 Series champion so he is allowed/required.

    2. @austus LOL.. This is too much .. Got me cracking..XD

  18. Is the Wall of Champions scheduled for renovation?

  19. So with more time we will be back at the sharp end of the grid and not only at preferred tracks.

    This doesn’t sound like Maldonado at all, he was never really fluent in English and I think the PR team are rewriting half of what he says, but the “difficult weekend” it’s definitely him.

  20. I imagine fixing your car after every session must get pretty difficult for the team you literally add nothing to. (Apart from oil millions obviously…)

  21. I think this is expected, even from a seasoned site as this one… Even before scrolling down to the comments section, I expected to see names like Crashlando, Stupiator, Crashtor and what not…

    He is not that bad guys, considering the brilliance he showed in his solitary race win… the way I see it, these good drivers are yet to score a win:
    – Grosjean
    – Bottas
    – Hulkenberg
    – Ricciardio
    – Perez
    – Sutil

    1. @egorov

      I think this is expected, even from a seasoned site as this one… Even before scrolling down to the comments section

      The comments aren’t ‘from’ the site, as I’m sure you know! So I don’t quite get what you mean here.

      1. @keithcollantine

        Pardon my English… I don’t mean to accuse the site, its just that I expected that members here could do more than just ‘make fun’ of an F1 driver…

    2. Yeah, these jokes are getting a bit old now, but it doesn’t affect him, he even finds it funny!

      So I don’t pay much attention to that, and this site is respectful for the most part, so there’s really nothing wrong with people here having a bit of fun.

  22. MAL, GUT, CHI, SUT… This is the F1 welet Bernie develop. Back in the days, there were pay drivers, but they were millonaires trying to live a F1 life. (I would if i could afford it). The biggest problem is that this pay drivers are so wealthy that they can afford good seats such as Lotus. I might also argue MAS is a pay driver, but he is a skilled one.

  23. Maldonao works on the difficult weekend. :)

  24. Maldonado predicts ‘difficult weekend’ for Lotus

    Keith, you could run this headline every week. :)

    This guy. Pastor’s performances since that lone Barcelona 2012 win have always make me wonder if William’s post race garage fire strategically burned up some key evidence in how they were able to win that race.

  25. Ask yourself this. Imagine you are a team owner on tight budget. Would you employ Pastor Maldonaldo for his driving skills alone?

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