Pay drivers are nothing new in Formula 1; nor, for that matter, are accident-prone ones, irrespective of their contract status.
Currently, one man has managed to managed to make a name for himself as the one to avoid at all costs: Pastor Maldonado. More often than not, the Lotus driver involved in an accident and, this season, he has managed to finish only four times in 11 races.
His critics are too many to list. There’s even a website with a real-time counter since his last crash, which we find amusing, and a “Maldonator” video on YouTube that you can watch after the jump.
Amazingly, the Venezuelan is not fazed at all. After a first-lap contact that led to his retirement in Monza, the more recent one, he insists that he is not the one to blame.
“Just looking at the images from Monza, one of the Saubers came into Romain [Grosjean] on the braking point. I think this brought his right rear suspension”, Maldonado told Motorsport. “Because of that, he came into Hulkenberg, and Hulkenberg jumped into me. We were side-by-side but the damage was in the front right and that was it, nothing to do.”
At Spa, he hit a kerb so hard that he managed to shut down the car; quite a feat, no? “It’s not frustrating, this is racing”, he quipped. He’s even optimistic about the rest of the season when Mercedes gives Lotus access to its new engine, which debuted at Monza: “That was impressive, wasn’t it? That will help us.”
That remains to be seen, along with whether Renault, who’s buying up Lotus and returning as a factory team, will retain him for 2016. Do you feel lucky, Pastor?
Image: Screen capture by Boris Sljivic’s video