Lol Whitmarsh and intelligent in one sentence................ LOL!!!!! Whitmarsh at the start of 2013: 'I believe Vodafone McLaren Mercedes have the best driver line up in the world' *Dies of laughter*
Well, they could have got worse pay drivers. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/25158108 The guy was good enough to fend off Alonso for half a GP under intense pressure, so if he can sort his head out then he could do well at Lotus.
He has been awful this year. His attitude outside of the car seems to have manifested itself into his driving. To be fair, he had a lot of very good performances in 2012 when the car was better can clearly he was happier. If Lotus give him a good car, then I think his attitude will change and there will be good performances again. Don't get me wrong, as a person I have no time for him at all, even less after his Texas outburst. Then again, they say nice guys never win. He'll be a 3xWDC before long based on that.
Credit where due, his drives at Singapore and Abu Dhabi last year were also top drawer. The issue is the other 55!
A lot of his drives this year have been great, except he never had the car to get the points he deserved.
He's a lousy driver who lucked into a win. Hulk could have won that race in that car, Barrichello probably could have too, Bruno Senna is thoroughly **** so he doesn't count.
So are you saying Maldonado is on a par with Hulk and Barrichello? Nothing lucky about holding off Alonso for half a race, unless you consider it lucky having Alonso behind you as we know how difficult he finds it getting past slower drivers ....
Could have written this myself, exactly what I think about him. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111663
Fact is, he got destroyed by Hulkenberg in GP2 when they were team-mates at ART in 2009. That was when Nico was a rookie, and Maldonado had two seasons experience too.... So much rage right now
He often doesn't help himself here but once you have a bad reputation, every little thing just seems to feed it and I think this is something Pastor is stuck with. Anyway, next season will be reckoning time for him up against Grosjean. Aside from seeing who's fastest, I think it will be interesting to see how Pastor can develop some consistency at Lotus under Boullier. I don't know to what extent Eric deserves the credit, but Grosjean has transformed from fast but totally reckless into a more complete, mature package over the course of this last season; Maldonado must do the same.
Adding to the weight paranoia Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey has backed a fresh push to increase the weight limit of next year's Formula 1 cars so that heavier drivers are not penalised. Efforts to bring forward a 10kg rise in the weight limit to 700kg, which has been agreed for 2015, have so far been thwarted by opposition from one team - believed to be Mercedes - because unanimous support is required to make the change now.
Its interesting that because when Cosi posted the weights, Vettel was quite light which supported the current theory that he was able to spread more ballast which had aided him in car setup and balance over the season. Are RB struggling to make the weight or are they just trying to maximise the perfromance advantage of the weight distribution?
The venomous gnome beleives Alonso WAS looking for a way out of Ferrari for 2014 http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111706
So Renault's engine is too heavy, and it looks like Red Bull spent too much time working on the 2013 car: Newey: "we are about six months off being prepared for the start of the season" http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111694 NO MORE FINGER!!!!
Walkover for Ferrari then, but what will their excuse be for a 2014 failed season? Renault's engine is too heavy, RBR are behind on development, Mercedes engine keeps catching fire is thirsty and heavier than Ferrari's............ Lotus have Maldonado..... Will it be Forza Ferrari or Forza Failure (again) in 2014?
Yes but I think it's worth noting that this is coming from Newey but not (yet) from Horner or the Bellend. Still, it all adds to the intrigue.
