Maldonado. Not of this planet..

[Jasandjules]

budgie smuggler said:

Save me digging through Wikipedia, what happened?

I saw some footage somewhere or other but.........

Maldonado had a questionable driving record before he even reached Formula One. As well as numerous accidents throughout the junior categories he was given a four race ban in the World Series by Renault for ignoring yellow flags and causing an accident that injured a marshal. This followed a similar WSR incident where he crashed heavily into a stationery car under red flag conditions. He was also disqualified from a GP2 race for disregarding marshal’s instructions which suggests he doesn’t think rationally behind the wheel.

[jamiebae]

REALIST123 said:

lbc said:

Vaud said:

I don't get all of the negativity personally. Some cheap jokes... (And expensive crashes)

On the upside, without his money there would have been a lot of jobs lost in Enstone and the team might not be there now to be saved...

Are you serious?

There are loads of people in the world with access to £30 million that Maldo Crasho brings with him.

Someone else will always be there to step in to an F1 seat.

Exactly. They could have had Chilton in there. Wouldn't have done any good but would have caused less damage.

No chance. Pastor brought a magnitude more cash than anyone else, probably three or four times more than anyone in fact. The main reason for this is that he's an utter fking liability who reached where he did by throwing money at anything going. He won GP2 in his fourth year, having thrown a massive budget at it, and was only in F1 because his budget was bigger than anyone else's which allowed the team to fund a decent driver into the other car. Even Vitaly Petrov, Giedo van der Garde or Marcus Ericsson couldn't compete, let alone Max Chilton.

[Mojocvh]

F1 becomes even more boring?

Probably not, but I'd just like to ask all those jumping on the bandwagon how many GP's theve won?

[jamiebae]

Mojocvh said:

F1 becomes even more boring?

Probably not, but I'd just like to ask all those jumping on the bandwagon how many GP's theve won?

I reckon a decent number of people could have achieved the same results actually, as long as they were close family friends of a Socialist dictator and were given somewhere north of $100m of government funds to fund their career

[Jasandjules]

Mojocvh said:

Probably not, but I'd just like to ask all those jumping on the bandwagon how many GP's theve won?

Give me his funding and I'll give it a go.

[budgie smuggler]

Mojocvh said:

Probably not, but I'd just like to ask all those jumping on the bandwagon how many GP's theve won?

It doesn't take a Michelin Starred chef to know you've been served up a plate of dog eggs.

[G321]

thegreenhell said:

BarbaricAvatar said:

I'm properly surprised that Chilton's scored podiums and won a race in the Indy Lights since leaving; in my opinion he's the least talented F1 driver of the past 10 years. At least Maldonado occassionally did something promising that showed there might actually be a racing driver hidden deep underneath the crust, trying to get out.

You must have been equally surprised that he had poles, wins and podiums in both British F3 and in GP2 on his way to F1.

I was quite surprised a few years ago to turn up to the first F3 race of the season to find him on pole, unfortunately he drove off when the red light came on and was given a 30 second penalty. he didn't even win on the road that day! 1 win in F3 and 4 wins in GP2 over about 6 years is not enough in my book to warrant an F1 drive. After 2 years in F1 and his previous experience going to Indy lights which is essentially a feeder series and only finishing 5th isn't exactly amazing. He can be quick but I don't think he's anywhere good enough for the top levels of motorsport in my opinion.

[Galileo]

Mojocvh said:

F1 becomes even more boring?

Probably not, but I'd just like to ask all those jumping on the bandwagon how many GP's theve won?

I won a British open wheeled championship with no funding but my own. I fancy my chances with his funding.

[Some Gump]

I still don't get the criticism of Max Chiltern as an F1 driver. When he was in F1, he finished every race of the season. Given that he was driving for a team who's only hope was if virtually every other car crashed or blew up - surely he did a near perfect effort for his team? Doesn't matter how many exciting borderline overtakes you can make, when you're battling for 20th..

[G321]

Some Gump said:

I still don't get the criticism of Max Chiltern as an F1 driver. When he was in F1, he finished every race of the season. Given that he was driving for a team who's only hope was if virtually every other car crashed or blew up - surely he did a near perfect effort for his team? Doesn't matter how many exciting borderline overtakes you can make, when you're battling for 20th..

As the old Murray Walker saying went 'to finish 20th, first you have to finish'

Or something like that....

Edited by G321 on Tuesday 9th February 14:39

[SeeFive]

To be fair, he was roundly outperformed in qually and the races by Jules Bianchi.

IMO, it isn't hugely difficult to finish a race when you are not competitively stressing either the technology under you or yourself, which the statistics against Bianchi would seem to support - certainly from a stress on equipment perspective.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2013/12/insight-bian...

[R1 Indy]

Some Gump said:

I still don't get the criticism of Max Chiltern as an F1 driver. When he was in F1, he finished every race of the season. Given that he was driving for a team who's only hope was if virtually every other car crashed or blew up - surely he did a near perfect effort for his team? Doesn't matter how many exciting borderline overtakes you can make, when you're battling for 20th..

Didn't he retire from the race (can't remember which) when he took out bianchi?

[Mr_Thyroid]

R1 Indy said:

Didn't he retire from the race (can't remember which) when he took out bianchi?

2013 - no retirements
2014 - 3 retirements including causing the double retirement in Canada.

[HustleRussell]

Galileo said:

I won a British open wheeled championship with no funding but my own. I fancy my chances with his funding.

Formula Vee?

[Some Gump]

HustleRussell said:

Formula Vee?

Is there much state oil money in formula vee to compete against?

[HustleRussell]

I wouldn't want to cast aspertions but I was curious about what the 'British open wheel championship' might be.

[coppice]

Maldonado won a Grand Prix the history books will tell us. And just like fellow GP winners Vittorio Brambilla and Clay Reggazoni he crashed a bit - so what? Why on earth should it matter who paid for his drive- every drive gets paid for by somebody . There may be a central heating engineer from Basingstoke or a taxi driver in Manila who would be better driver than PM- so what ? It was ever thus - and besides, who or what else would people work themselves up into such a self righteous frenzy about?

[FIREBIRDC9]

So now that our Man Maldonado is no more.


Who are we going to look to for the daft antics now?

[ajprice]

FIREBIRDC9 said:

So now that our Man Maldonado is no more.


Who are we going to look to for the daft antics now?

Manor second seat, Verstappen when he goes for a 50/50 overtake that doesn't work out as planned. Maybe a rematch of Raikkonen/Bottas if/when they are on the same bit of track.

[jamiebae]

FIREBIRDC9 said:

So now that our Man Maldonado is no more.


Who are we going to look to for the daft antics now?

That's a tough question actually. The driver least worthy of his place on the grid in terms of talent is (in my opinion) Marcus Ericsson, but that doesn't mean he'll be constantly causing accidents.