Maldonado refuses to sit out FP1 for Palmer

24 April, 2015

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Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado is refusing to budge as his team attempts to accommodate Friday driver Jolyon Palmer.

In China and Bahrain, Maldonado’s race teammate Romain Grosjean sat out Friday practice sessions so that Briton Palmer could drive his black and gold car.

“This is not ideal for the racing drivers as we lose an hour and a half of practice and we are not delighted to be giving up our ‘baby’,” said the Frenchman.

“But we have an economic reality today that means F1 is not easy. And the teams need to look at every possible solution to finance the budgets,” Grosjean added.

Turun Sanomat reports that the Enstone team’s deputy Federico Gastaldi has now asked Maldonado to take his turn on the Friday bench, but the driver and his entourage refused.

Maldonado, who is strongly backed by the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, “made it clear to the team that his agreement gives him the right to drive in each session at every grand prix,” correspondent Luis Vasconcelos reported.

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chrill

Why not replace Maldonado with Palmer for the entire weekend, then? While I understand Maldonado’s stance, Formula 1 is a team sport. You can’t make it without your team.
ronsgoldenboy

And the team may not be able to make it without the sponsor Maldonado brings.
Baziz

Bad call by the Lotus team, it is understandable that Pastor could give up his car for a free practice once in a while but the timing is very bad. They just lost two good results for Pastor because of car failures while he was outpacing Romain. The main focus should be to give Pastor a reliable car, not to let another pay driver take it for some laps.
chrill

At the same time, Palmer brings cash too. Maldonado’s behaviour is effectively blocking Palmer’s sponsors from investing in the team.

They have 2 cars and two race drivers, yes, but they have several drivers and all of them contribute financially through sponsorship and/or publicity. No one driver is more important than the team as a whole.
F1Novice

Palmer to Haas
Antoine

Romain contributes very little. financially.. nett nett. Pastor is the boss.
McLarenfan

Romain brings Total S.A More than a Partnership, A Relationship of Trust

For Total, Trusting Talent is more than an advertising slogan. It’s the philosophy that underlies our relationship with Formula 1 race driver Romain Grosjean, who we are sponsoring again this year.
Sky-F1-HD

Bottom line is money talks and BullSh!t walks ..No Doubt Maldonado knows his £30Million is propping up Lotus and since Romain Brings Nada Maldonado ain’t gonna let that happen. As long as Teams have to rely on a driver bringing sponsorship this will always happen. Bernie needs to share the money a bit better which would allow teams to Hire the most talented driver not the riches , which in turn would up the spectacle. Drivers like Maldonado or Ericsson should never be in F1 period.
ronsgoldenboy

I’m not condoning Maldonado’s actions but as we saw at Sauber the driver who brings more sponsor usually gets their way. And I’m sure Palmer’s father cant compete with PDVSA oil company.

I’m a fan of Palmer and I think it is sad that a GP2 champ cant get an F1 seat where others who he beat in GP2 walks straight into a F1 drive due to money. But it is the signs of the times.
M-P

Pretty sure he doesn’t have total’s backing anymore. Total are partners with Renault so would’ve ended with the switch to Merc engines who use Petronas instead.
M-P

Even if the car was reliable Pastor would found a way to bin it lol
Hugo Lafreniere

If his contract guarantees him full weekend, then so be it. Serves Lotus right.
gethylogic

Although I don’t know how much Roman brings in compared to Pastor, Roman does in fact provide them cash through his Total sponsorship.
MB

… somehow, Pastor’s right, HE really needs all the time in the car, so he can practise how not to crash… 🙂
F1Love

Romain brings money through performance and points, Pastor brings his through sponsors. One is a race driver, the other is a customer who bought a seat.
Sky-F1-HD

agree 100% !!!! as I said in my own post drivers like Maldanado and Erricson should not be anyway near an F1 car. I know he Lucked into a win in spain a few years..so now he thinks he’s a genuine F1 driver… It must cost Lotus most of the PDVSA money to repair the damage he creates. If anyone thinks I’m having a go the ask yourself which team boss would give him a seat on Talent alone… Answers on a post card please!!!!!
Andii Sixx

Last year Mercedes powered McLaren had Mobil 1 and Esso all over their cars, Williams, BR Petrobas (Brazilian state oil company) just because the Works Team use Petronas doesn’t mean teams they supply are duty bound to follow suit.
gethylogic

He has a point, Lotus are actually using Petronas lubricants this year and not Total. That said I wouldn’t be surprised if Total are still providing money towards his race seat. They’re still down as one of his partners on his website, while the primary reason they decided to back him in the first place was to get a Frenchman on the grid.
Boycottthebull

“In F1 contracts arent worth the paper they are written on” – Monisha Kaltenborn
M-P

No but it must be pretty foolish to use and engine designed for working with Petronas fuels with something else imo.
F1 Engineer

Pastor did not Luck into a race win, He beat Alonso on lens’s home turf fair and square. He is also a GP2 champion and aa multiple times GP2 feature race winner.
Nicole Aggrosberg

Are you sure it’s not “practice how TO crash…”?

He seems to be getting better at it each time. Practice does make perfect.
Jose Alvarez

True, but Lotus is screwed either way. They Need Romain for constructors points…they need Pastor to even get out on track.
Nicole Aggrosberg

Maybe Monisha is left handed.
Sky-F1-HD

Maldando was on pole because the FIA demoted Hamilton when Mclaren didn’t put enough Fuel in car for him to make it back to Parc Ferme… He did qualify well and spain is one of those tracks where you can keep people behind you. There is no way in this Lifetime or the next that Maldanado at his best would beat Hamilton at his worst especially if he’s on Pole. So As I said Maldanado drove his best race every in F1 and Lucked into a Win.F1 is Littered with 1 hit wonders who won 1 GP..”just because a dog is born in a stable doesn’t make him Horse….. He did nothing before then and even less since then. END OF!!!
McLarenfan

Sorry you are wrong but it is not on the car anymore in the past it was on the front wing endplate but now it is on Romain
M-P

Ah fair enough I did double check the car but didn’t think to check the guy himself 😛
Anonymous

[“But we have an economic reality today that means F1 is not easy. And the teams need to look at every possible solution to finance the budgets,” Grosjean added.]
____________________________________
Delicately phrased, Monsieur Grosjean…Señor Maldonado rents his seat, he gets to choose who sits in it. Lotus being acquired by Renault, would put an end to the once illustrious British team having to sell their reputation, with inept drivers in their cars.
Ichbinnotyou

She’s a woman who only talks about points, money and how to cheat. Enough said.
Ichbinnotyou

LOL Grosjean a race driver! He’s the same crashnator than Pastor and also already told French TV in his firsts years racing than he WILL BE WORLD CHAMPION. Such pretentious driver needs to go away from F1 and far far far away…
=El Presidente=

Total would not want to be associated with a baboon. So that is why their logo is not the baboons car.
McLarenfan

I almost missed it but I remembered seeing the logo on him in a recent interview I did the same as you checked the car first then went back to Totals website were I noticed the wording Romain not Lotus then i pulled up a photo on the teams site of both drivers Romain and Crashtor.
Matt

I agree the timing is bad. I think 3 races with Palmer running in FP1 in short succession is too much especially since he was middling in the past two. Why rush it – it’s not like Palmer is showing F1 comparable speeds.
For your comparison though about outpacing – apples to oranges comparison on an alternate strategy with clean tires vs Romain on scrubbed tires. If Pastor gets to Q3 as he should have I doubt we see the same results – this is with Palmer taking Grosjean’s seat on his birthday weekend. What a present from the team.
If Pastor is so good he should be beating him in quali but he’s not as only in China was he close.
Baziz

Pastor has been very unlucky so far this season, the reasons for his disappointing qualify sessions have been clearly stated as car malfunctions by the Lotus team. The races he got threw the first corner he was a good match for Romain despite starting lower on the grid. I expect nothing less then Maldonado fighting the Williams and Red Bull guys in Barcelona.
F1Love

I’m not saying Romain is a top driver, I’m just saying he scores points which brings in money for the team. Pastor scores points too, but they go on his super license.
Massimo Merebini

this guy really knows how to make himself popular
Massimo Merebini

yeah..right , Renault is probably already at the door of PDVSA begging them not to withdraw their sponsorship should they decide to but the team .
Massimo Merebini

absolutely not , he had a terrible 1st year but came back and has done a fantastic job after that . i think he’s a very talented driver unlike Jolyon Palmer who took 4 years and at the tender age of 24 to finally win the GP2 !!
NapoleonSolo

I wonder what Maldonado’s contract actually states regarding when he is guaranteed to drive. Absent that specific information, one might suspect Lotus of selling more seats than they have a la Sauber. If Maldonado paid for those laps and that seat time, it’s his.
Tomaz

I wonder why PDVSA is backing him so religiously. Is there no other Venezuelan drivers out there? Maldonado’s racing skills are below average and his attitude isn’t that great either. After his last race with Williams he accused the team of sabotaging his car for example. Why would they back that kind of a driver? Makes them look silly as well.
Matt

Or should you say both cars fighting RBR and Williams? I’d be surprised if it was just Pastor. Personally on the high downforce course I think they will be close in racing trim to both with the order like this Williams, RIC, GRO, MAL, KVY. The question is whether Sauber or STR will be in the mix or not. If Lotus has a bad quali and Pastor starts in 11th or lower again they will be dicing with those two teams and possibly Force India again. If they are 7th and 8th then that will make a big difference.
Baziz

Yeah, I expect them both to give the Williams guys a hard time, I only mentioned Pastor because he was the subject on this topic.