Pastor Maldonado

[steveaki13]

So he has been give a 5 place gird drop for China (half of what Ricciardo got for accidental pit release)

He also gets 3 points only, meaning he can flip 3 more cars before he gets a ban.

So what do you think. Is this punishment enough?

I mean I would say a 10 place drop and 6 points would be more justified

[Robinho]

He had the harshest available in race punishment short of a disqualification, the 10 second stop go, so the 5 place drop is probably appropriate, and let's face it, in that car that will put him on or close to the back row. However, what he did today was as brainless as grosjean at spa a couple of years ago, just with only 1 driver taken out. Maybe he should have had more points on his licence also.

[dj_bytedisaster]

RoGro was banned for a race after he tried to kill Alonso at Spa - I think Maldonado should be banned for a race, too.

[henners88]

The guy is a fool and glad he's got a grid penalty, but it should be a 10 place not a 5! A race ban wouldn't go a miss as its not just this incident. He's been using his car as a weapon for his frustration for years now and its not being taken seriously enough. He rammed Perez in a Monaco practice session, he did the same to Hamilton after Lewis overtook him on a qualifying lap and he also took him out in Valencia. Pastor just doesn't have what it takes to compete in F1 and the sooner the money dries up the better as far as I am concerned.

[ShiftingGears]

He's lucky he didn't cop a ban for that, that was completely moronic.


HOWEVER it completely highlighted the problem with the lower nose - the risk of one car going under another is much higher this year. Last year that impact would've spun Gutierrez around, no question.

[dj_bytedisaster]

He's lucky he didn't cop a ban for that, that was completely moronic.


HOWEVER it completely highlighted the problem with the lower nose - the risk of one car going under another is much higher this year. Last year that impact would've spun Gutierrez around, no question.

Problem is - the wrong designer foresaw that. I think Newey said it would happen as early as last year. Now we've already had it happen twice. First Koba in Melbourne and now the axe murderer from venezuela. But since it was Newey, everybody dismissed it as 'Red Bull whining'. Maybe listening to them once in a while would help. Same was last year - everybody was up in arms against Merc and RB, because they complained about the tyres. That was, however, before Alonso nearly got killed by chunks of rubber flying past him at 300 kph.

[Robinho]

Except it was the tyres touching, not the low nose, that flipped the sauber yesterday.

[steveaki13]

Except it was the tyres touching, not the low nose, that flipped the sauber yesterday.

This. If you watch its the tyre contact that does it, Surprising as it may seem.

[anfield5]

Without sounding smug, this is what I said in the low-nose debate forum. When one car flips another usually (sure there are cases when this isn't so) it is contact from the tyres that launches a car, the only way to stop this is either go to enclosed wheels i.e. sports car racing or do away with spinning wheels.

[The Black Knight]

So he has been give a 5 place gird drop for China (half of what Ricciardo got for accidental pit release)

He also gets 3 points only, meaning he can flip 3 more cars before he gets a ban.

So what do you think. Is this punishment enough?

I mean I would say a 10 place drop and 6 points would be more justified

I agree completely. I think he should just be banned full stop and his F1 license removed. He's an incompetent dangerous driver who is going to responsible for a serious accident if not fatal one. Not alone that but he has just tried to defend himself as well saying that Guttierez gave him no room, which is a load of rubbish. It shows that there is sometime not teaching anyone about their mistakes no matter how much you punish them. He is, unfortunately, one of these drivers and F1 is better off without the fool.