Pastor Maldonado Confirmed to be Leaving F1

[Andrew Harper]

There will always be drivers in F1 who are supported by large amounts of backing but are errmm not at the same level of others, so I won't knock him for that. He got there and made the most of it (most of the time....)

He won a race which most F1 drivers will never achieve so that's something on the CV but I will be curious to see what he does next. His desire seems to revolve solely around F1 so maybe he'll just disappear from the motorsport scene and that will be it. Doesn't necessarily come across as a team player so WEC or endurance racing may not be for him.

Pedro Diniz is one driver I always think of, ok driver, supported by millions of dollars from his Dad's company (Parmalet Dairies). He vanished without a trace after F1, but I think that was because the sponsorship money dried up.

I'm still slightly amazed that Sato is still around, he's quick, but boy does he get through cars....

 

[David O'Reilly]

Out of my own curiosity, here's a quick glace at his 5 year F1 career compared to his teammates with two high-level metrics:

Maldonado vs. Teammates
Points: 76 vs. 98
Retires: 28 vs. 19

He scored 29% less points and broke 47% more cars compared to his teammates (Barrichello, Bruno Senna, Bottas, Grosjean)

Not a shabby list of team mates there. When you take into account the level of talent on the other side of the garage his stats dont seem to bad to me.
In a pay driver situation for a mid ranked team it is and has often been the case historically that one guy brings the money and the other brings the talent. Seems this was the case here. In that context these stats don't damn him really.

 

[David O'Reilly]

so WEC or endurance racing may not be for him.

Pedro Diniz is one driver I always think of, ok driver, supported by millions of dollars from his Dad's company (Parmalet Dairies). He vanished without a trace after F1, but I think that was because the sponsorship money dried up.

Hmm yes. I can imagine being the team boss of a 24 hour race chatting to Pastor. "Now Pastor we need to look after the car, its a race of X hundred laps" then turning to the team and saying "You know I think we will be ok".
Seriously though, in races where in 24 hours anthing can happen and even a 50 cent hose clip can cost you the victory would you strap Pastor into the drivers seat? Not me.

Parmalat went under in a disgraceful affair of fraud, phoney invoices and shabby acounting practices. If it didnt actually have a product it would have been called a ponzi scheme. Didnt realise Diniz was related.

 

[arniesan]

We all might have been saying a totally different story about Pastor; if he had not made the big mistake of walking away from Williams.
Me, I liked him and still think he was on the verge of coming good.
If world oil prices had not fallen like they have, he would still be in his seat...remember, Magnussen is also a pay driver, so a lot of the shouting about skill over money, is just so much hogwash.
Pastor was the life saver of F1 over the last few seasons; without him, many more thousands would have stopped watching it, because it has become a boring joke.
Magnussen will have a hard job replacing Pastors charisma for sure, he will just be what he is and that is; a middle of the road pay driver, with a rather droll personality.

 

[Martin Maaskant]

I'm not a big fan off this driver. The best I can say about him is that he is fast but he has an attitude problem. Some drivers overcome this like Grosjean but somehow he did not.

 

[Hor-hay]

I'm not a big fan off this driver. The best I can say about him is that he is fast but he has an attitude problem. Some drivers overcome this like Grosjean but somehow he did not.

Massive attitude problem! I was happy to see a fellow Venezuelan in F1, until I saw what sort of person he was.

 

[A blink of an eye]

I'm glad he's finally out of F1. This brings another question, where will he go now? It would be extremely difficult to get a drive anywhere now due to his reputation and his sponsors not paying up.

Join an army and drive tanks, cos other kinds of vehicles will be ruined after a crash.