Pastor Maldonado Confirmed to be Leaving F1

[Chris]

Whether you love him, loathe him or just find him downright hilarious, it has been confirmed that Pastor Maldonado's Formula One tenure is over.

With the news being a somewhat foregone conclusion earlier last week and following the Renault takeover of Lotus, the fiery Venezuelan will find himself without a seat in 2016, and whilst it is yet to be confirmed, 23 year old Danish driver Kevin Magnussen is the hot favourite to be the replacement to Maldonado, thus rekindling his F1 career after it was perhaps unfairly cut short at the conclusion of 2014. Issuing the news via TwitLonger, Maldonado expressed his gratitude for the support of all his fans and that he was proud of his time in F1.

Despite bringing a sizeable pot of gold to the teams he raced for (rumoured to be as high as $60 million), Maldonado's 2012 season with Williams was not your typical 'pay-driver' performance as he showed some impressive instances of pace. Most notably when he became a Grand Prix winner at the Circuit de Catalunya by holding off a hard-charging Fernando Alonso. Other high calibre performances include his front row start in Singapore and a second row start in Valencia. However despite these highlights he was largely out-driven in the second half of the 2012 season by Brazilian team mate Bruno Senna.

However, if you're going to race cars; you're going to crash cars, and unfortunately for him, Maldonado will be remembered for little else. Earning himself nicknames such as "Crashtor Maldonado", the Venezuelan even has several crash compilations dedicated to his questionable decisions. None more abhorrent than in Monaco 2012 when he used his car as a weapon to intentionally hit Sergio Perez during Free Practice.

Over to you!
How do you feel about this announcement? Let us know!

 

[BSH]

About time. Welcome back Baby face K-Mag

 

[LazyBug]

I bet safety car driver will surely miss him

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

 

[Chris]

Felipe's Dad at 1:54 get's me every time.

 

[Frederic Schornstein]

The tension until the point when Pastor will crash and how was the only thing that made F1 interesting since Merc domniation (just kidding). I think it is saver for everyone that he no longer drives an F1 car.

 

[Benutzername]

On some days he was incredibly fast, on other days pretty average or worse.

Often over the limit, resulting in entertaining moments.
He wasnt slow, just not consistent.
Many people reduce him on incidents, especially 2012 was really strong in terms of speed in my opinion.

 

[Ghoults]

A driver I can never understand. A mystery of some kind. His winning drive back in that one day in barcelona was just superb flawless performance. At least that's the way I remember it. What maldonado was able to do that day is something we just don't see in F1. The only other comparable example of such sudden victory was by vettel when he won in monza in toro rosso.

We have seen multiple instances where some driver was so close pulling that kind of result but never did. We have seen the buemis and algersuaris looking similarly good in qualifying only to completely fade away in the race, we have seen force indias and sutil doing the same thing and for some completely unknown reason maldonado is one of the very few who could do anything like that at all the way he did it. It was hard earned win in a machine that should not be able to do it.

But clearly maldonado was not vettel caliber driver. Not even close.

Where did that one win for williams come from? It seems nobody knows. Not williams, not maldonado and probably nobody in the whole world. It almost looks like all of his skill went into winning that one race and after that he had nothing left give.

Like it or dislike it I think his mental approach would have been spot on for f1. Take no **** from anyone ever. It would have been spot on for f1 if he had the results to back it off. Which is strange because he did manage to win purely by skill. It was not like maldonado lucked into winning drive that day. It was williams who lucked into winning driver. But only on that one single day.

His antics overall surely were not something I'd agree with though. The way he crashed into hamilton on purpose in spa should have earned him a race ban but instead he got out of it virtually unharmed. That's not really maldonado's fault that he did not get any kind of penalty for it. The crash itself was of course 100% intentional and unforgivable. That fault was fia's inability to do anything about it.

At this point I'd not even label him is as contradictory figure. He was just dangerous slow driver. But just like all of his career it is very difficult to explain. I certainly can't do it. I would have liked to see more strong skillful performances and less pointless crashes.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Cost-saving in F1 has just taken a huge turn for the better.

 

[Óscar Melero]

 

[David O'Reilly]

I'm not a fan, nor do I loathe him.
I'm glad Magnussen gets a much deserved seat. It really troubled me that a great champion from FR 3.5 who podiumed on debut with Mclaren was without a drive, due to politics and money (Honda).

Maldonardo despite what many think will have the last laugh. He got to F1, spent 5 seasons there and won a race in a car that was not dominant. His was a controversial and action packed tenure but he won one. There are many who can't say that especially not many pay drivers who can say that!

When he looks out over the water at breakfast time he is a retired (winning) F1 driver. Now who wouldnt like to be able to say that?

Thanks for the fun Pastor, good luck.

 

[James Cook]

Don't hit the door on the way out.

 

[Marian Zelenka]

Montoya @ 10:55. Priceless.

 

[Tommi Saari]

Glad to see Kevin back in action, as for Pastor...one less excuse for the other guys failing to finish.

 

[billymitchell]

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)

 

[Chris]

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)

I love a good stat!

 

[Nick Gregory]

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.

 

[MoerasGrizzly]

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.

BTCC.

 

[Nick Gregory]

BTCC.

NASCAR is another option for him.

 

[Benutzername]

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)

Just something to think about...

DESPITE retiring that much more often he wasnt lacking that much amount of points.