If Lotus tame Maldonado, then what?

[Smitters]

Let's put the financial situation aside for a minute. Tucked away in the BBC article on the £114m debt - £££ - there was an interesting point made:

Lotus turned Grosjean, who was pretty crash-tastic, into a top pace driver. Wonder what they can do with Bastor Maldonado, the evil twin, to make him be more Pastor for more of the time.

[deadslow]

what then .... err, pigs will be flying everywhere

[Steamer]

Grosjean & Maldonado seem like polar opposites in terms of personality..

...You arnt going to change Maldonado.

[Richard-G]

well Pastor has won a race, that's more than Perez, Hulkenberg, et al have achieved. He has also won a race far more recently than Massa.

Pastor is a good peddler he just needs a consistent car.

[carinaman]

Shame he binned it at Australia in 2012.

I think Grosjean's reputation was a little overegged.

Have they both become fathers recently? I'm just looking for links to see how Maldonado would mellow like Grosjean may have done.

How much of the change we've seen in Grosjean in 2013 was due to car and tyre changes? Perhaps they suited him?

[Smitters]

carinaman said:

Shame he binned it at Australia in 2012.

I think Grosjean's reputation was a little overegged.

Have they both become fathers recently? I'm just looking for links to see how Maldonado would mellow like Grosjean may have done.

How much of the change we've seen in Grosjean in 2013 was due to car and tyre changes? Perhaps they suited him?

Good point on the fatherhood thing. I remember on of the senior chaps at Lotus mentioning it in an interview.

I'm genuinely interested. Clearly it won't help being mid-pack as there's more to hit, but I don't thing G's reputation was over-egged. Can't remember the last time someone was banned. He was binning it early every other race for a while.

[entropy]

The thing with RoGro is that he's a pussycat compared with Mad Dog Maldonado and RoGro was given time and benefit of doubt as Boullier is also his manager.

There must be 'pay drivers' out there who can take over from Mad Dog? I suspect EB will eventually tire of him.

[carinaman]

Was Spa 2012 just Grosjean's fault?

[Vocal Minority]

Carina man - it's not only that he is quicker, he isn't making the stupid decisions any more. Tyres can't fix that.

RG has really grown as a driver and a person I think

[Mr_Thyroid]

carinaman said:

Was Spa 2012 just Grosjean's fault?

There was a lot going on at the start of Spa 2012 and it will have been stressful and confusing for all drivers.

Maldonado cracked under the pressure of having a heaving smoking Sauber in front of him and jumped the start. I'm sure all the drivers were slightly distracted by wondering if the start would be aborted but once it was underway it should have been like a reset switch - focus on doing your job.

Grosjean's start was OK, certainly not bad and slightly better than Hamilton, so he should have been able to quickly focus of the task of hand of not crashing into everyone - which he failed to do. So yes the crash was entirely Grosjean's fault.

We will never know whether he was distracted by the previous incident, and Grosjean might not know either, but the crash came 5 seconds after the start which should be long enough for a professional top-level racing driver to get a grip. I do not think they can be considered mitigating factors.

Maldonado served his penalty for the jump start and Grosjean served his ban. Maldonado's infringement affected only himself but Grosjean cannot give back the lost points to Hamilton, Alonso or the two Saubers which could've changed the result of the championship.

I think it is fairly clear that both men drive with hot heads but from interviews after races it seems that this is a characteristic that Maldonado may struggle with in other situations so could more deeply ingrained - the st-slinging in the last couple of races at Williams seems to back this up. But give him a good car and he should find it easier to relax.

Edited by Mr_Thyroid on Thursday 16th January 21:43

[groomi]

Didn't Boullier run Maldonado in GP2 to great effect?

I've been saying for a while that I think Maldonado, whilst not being particularly likeable, could be a very capable driver.

All that aside, I wonder if either driver will have a car mid-season. Lotus look to be in a lot of trouble, unfortunately serious.

[carinaman]

groomi said:

Lotus look to be in a lot of trouble, unfortunately serious.

Very clever. For me they're still Renault. Someone asked Murray Walker on a Motor Sport magazine podcast which team he throught was Lotus, the Lotus/Lotus team (now Caterham) or Renault/Lotus. He said neither as Lotus died with Chapman.