Maldonado believes that his mistakes are normal
Pastor Maldonado reflects on a season start where he blew hot and cold, between an unexpected victory in Barcelona and numerous penalties caused by his roughness on the track. The Venezuelan believes, however, that his mistakes are normal and that they only reflect the fact that he is still learning.
Entangled in numerous controversies following race collisions, Pastor Maldonado struggles to confirm the level glimpsed during the Spanish Grand Prix, where he achieved his first Formula 1 victory. The Venezuelan has not scored a single point since that success, leaving his 2012 tally at 29 points. According to Auto Motor und Sport, the Williams driver is indeed the one who has lost the most points due to his mistakes, with the German magazine estimating a total of 45 points.
Notably responsible for this scoreless streak over the last 6 races were a collision with Lewis Hamilton in Valencia, a crash with Sergio Pérez at Silverstone, and a touch with Paul di Resta at the Hungaroring, three incidents for which the Williams driver was penalized. In the case of the Force India driver, the contact had no impact on the integrity of his car, but the first two incidents led to the retirement of Pastor Maldonado’s direct opponent.
Questioned by the magazine GP Week, the Venezuelan goes over these three incidents: « Thinking about Valencia, I was in a difficult position. There was only one lap left and I was 3 seconds faster than Lewis [Hamilton]. I tried to gain the position, he tried to defend, and I think it was a normal contact. At Silverstone, I was very unlucky because I lost the car at the entry of the corner and unfortunately, Pérez was on the outside. [As for the last incident,] I was racing on the edge with di Resta and I locked the wheels and lost grip, but I was on the inside of the corner and there was slight contact.»
The winner of the Spanish Grand Prix admits having had the chance to discuss their collision with Sergio Pérez: « We talked about it for 2 or 3 minutes before going to see the stewards. Everything is fine. I think everyone saw that it was not intentional, even him. We have been rivals before, especially in GP2 and again in F1. I understand his arguments, he was angry, he lost that race and so did I. I am not here to argue, I am here to race and win. »
The Venezuelan readily admits to having shown a certain inconsistency: “I think we have undoubtedly not been consistent enough. At the beginning, I made some mistakes, like in Australia where I was 6th before my accident on the last lap. However, before this season, and after a horrible year in 2011, we did not expect to win.”
Maldonado still believes that there’s not much missing to replicate the result achieved in Spain: « We haven’t always been on top, but not far off, especially since Barcelona. I just need to stay focused on the second half of the season and keep our targets with the car. We just need to bounce back, put everything together, which we haven’t done in the last races. We need to learn from our mistakes. »
Mistakes he attributes to youth and inexperience. Thus, when asked about the number of his mistakes being too numerous, he replies that they are normal errors: If you look at other drivers, they have also been through that.
Finally, Maldonado defends himself against having earned a bad reputation with all these on-track problems: « Before winning, no one was there [to interview me], now they are. That’s racing. I’ve made some mistakes, that’s how it is. I will try to do my best as always. Sometimes, it didn’t work out as expected, but the important thing is that we are very fast and it must stay that way. »
In collaboration with the sports betting expert Bwin.
