No farewells for the most "entertaining" driver that F1 has seen in this era???

[Nitrodaze]

If you break a piece of car, say needing a nose cone replaced, then that's an incident. Especially early in his career, Senna was prone to spinning cars in Friday practice and breaking front wings. Maldonaldo's are similar; I read a lot of "Crashes into the barrier at Turn X by himself in Practice X."

Crashes during practise is acceptable as it is an exploratory session where crashes or incidents are expected. Hence they do not count in the grand scheme of things. What counts are crashes or incident on race day that cost the team and driver points or race win. On this score, l doubt you would find much wrong with Senna; especially in his prime.

I say that because, compared to Prost, Shumacher, Vettel, Hamilton; race number adjusted; he would not standout that much in terms of crashes, l don't think. I am sure someone out there may well prove me wrong, until then l have my doubts.

[Koz]

Senna
Schumacher
Maldonado
The Entire Renault Team

Kenseth

There's an illustrious club if ever I saw one.

I don't recall anyone else trying to take someone out AFTER a session was over, and for no gain whatsoever. Maybe they could justify it for their ends.

Maldonado hitting Hamilton was just malice.

[Starter]

"Crashes during practise is acceptable as it is an exploratory session where crashes or incidents are expected. Hence they do not count in the grand scheme of things. What counts are crashes or incident on race day that cost the team and driver points or race win. On this score, l doubt you would find much wrong with Senna; especially in his prime.

I say that because, compared to Prost, Shumacher, Vettel, Hamilton; race number adjusted; he would not standout that much in terms of crashes, l don't think. I am sure someone out there may well prove me wrong, until then l have my doubts."

The fast part, no dispute. The fair part?? Much dispute. That's the reason I would never rate him in my list of the best F1 drivers.

[Jag_Warrior]

Crashes during practise is acceptable as it is an exploratory session where crashes or incidents are expected. Hence they do not count in the grand scheme of things. What counts are crashes or incident on race day that cost the team and driver points or race win. On this score, l doubt you would find much wrong with Senna; especially in his prime.

I say that because, compared to Prost, Shumacher, Vettel, Hamilton; race number adjusted; he would not standout that much in terms of crashes, l don't think. I am sure someone out there may well prove me wrong, until then l have my doubts.

Having followed Senna since he was at Lotus, I always felt that I was watching a genius in action. A flawed genius, much like Steve Jobs? Yes. But the only man who ever lived who was without sin had nail marks in his hands at the end. The rest of us are flawed to varying degrees. Senna's drive at Estoril was one for the ages. Passing people on the outside, on the wet line, in an inferior car? Yeah, that blew me away! In one of the interviews in the documentary, "Senna", Jackie Stewart asked Senna about his aggressive driving style. Jackie was from a different era. He had seen SO many of his fellow racers die in what looked like minor accidents. Senna's aggressive driving style didn't set well with him... and I knew why. But Senna was initially taken aback. His reply was that he saw it as his job to always take the car and himself to the limit (I'm paraphrasing). This is why he would often blast off another hot lap even when he had pole wrapped up. In this day and time especially, people are sensitive to things like (male) aggression and "bullying" and all manner of dominant behavior. But Senna's attitude was all about establishing his dominance over the field. That's why Eddie Irvine got b!tch slapped. That's why Michael Schumacher got a finger in the face. That's why he didn't back down from Prost in his earliest days at McLaren, or even Prost's crooked FIA "patron", Jean-Marie Balestre - the most powerful man in motorsports at that time. He was often the only one who would speak up during driver meetings, while the others would silently sit there and be spoken to like naughty children by Balestre. He saved his "niceness" for the poor kids of Brazil. The way he saw it, anybody that strapped on a helmet was fair game. Renault got that. And that's why they (a French car company) forced Williams to take Senna in '94, even though Prost had a contractual right of refusal with Williams... and Renault knew that it would mean that Prost (a Frenchman) would have to go. For Renault and Senna, it was about the ruthless business of winning. Who would lay it on the line for Maldonado? Who would risk burning a bridge with a winning team to get or keep him? No one.

But this is not about Senna vs. Maldonado. Maldonado should never be mentioned in the same breath as Senna, Prost, Schumacher, or anyone else who could overcome the occasional mistake with a flurry of brilliant drives. Pastor was more likely to overcome his occasional flash of brilliance with his more normal brain fade. I might compare Maldonado to Shigeaki Hattori (Mr. Boombastic... Shiggy!) - he was a "comic genius" prone to brain fade while driving too. Whatever talent that Pastor Maldonado has tends to be overshadowed by the simple fact that the wires in his brain sometimes come loose and short out. I'm not sure what's wrong with him. But I think his inability to focus is why he would run into things while trying to adjust the buttons on his steering wheel or not see other cars that were obviously beside him.

Whatever happens to Pastor in the future, at least he'll always have the memory of that lone grand prix victory. He has that to talk about forever more. He can leave out all of his driving faux pas. And as a fellow once told me, the older you get, the faster and better you were. Ya just have to wait long enough.

[Rollo]

Whatever happens to Pastor in the future, at least he'll always have the memory of that lone grand prix victory.

Say whatever you like. That's still more than any of us have done... unless someone wants to throw many millions of dollarpounds at me. I promise to bear your burden of riches, however massive

[Starter]

Say whatever you like. That's still more than any of us have done... unless someone wants to throw many millions of dollarpounds at me. I promise to bear your burden of riches, however massive

The combined resources of Carlos Slim and Bill Gates couldn't buy you a F1 win.... or me either for that matter. Might get you enough stuff to smoke to make one think they'd won a race though.

[Jag_Warrior]

Say whatever you like. That's still more than any of us have done... unless someone wants to throw many millions of dollarpounds at me. I promise to bear your burden of riches, however massive

This is very true. He'll always have that. But in truth, everyone on the F1 grid has accomplished more (in auto racing) than any of us ever will. Heck, I wouldn't mind being Will Stevens for a day, as long as that day was the morning of the Monaco Grand Prix.

And with the passage of time, Pastor may be remembered more for winning that race, admittedly in totally legit fashion, than things like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=7kY1N2pC0L4

[The Black Knight]

This is very true. He'll always have that. But in truth, everyone on the F1 grid has accomplished more (in auto racing) than any of us ever will. Heck, I wouldn't mind being Will Stevens for a day, as long as that day was the morning of the Monaco Grand Prix.

And with the passage of time, Pastor may be remembered more for winning that race, admittedly in totally legit fashion, than things like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...&v=7kY1N2pC0L4

Maybe but I doubt it. Perhaps if he returns in 2017 as a paid driver again after having a a year to reflect he may just about be able to clear his head up. He needs a big change of direction, however. I can't remember a time there has been a worse driver in F1.

The worst thing I found about Pastor was his inability to see and recognize that he had done wrong. No matter what the situation he was never to blame, according to him. Even in Bahrain was it last year, where he made the most ridiculous lunge in the history of motorsport down the inside of one of Gutierrez, and Guitierrez became airborne, he insisted that he was the innocent party. When you have a driver of this mentality it's a danger to everyone on the grid. He's completely obtuse and blindsighted to his own faults. Vettel is also blindsighted to his own faults but he gets away with it because he has bundles of talent and doesn't make stupid mistakes very often. One of things I've always liked about Lewis Hamilton was his ability to hold his hand up and take the blame for something. Maldonado, on the other hand, doesn't get away with it because he doesn't have bundles of talent like the other two and he makes more mistakes than most of the grid combined.

Looking back at that video just cements my belief that the grid is a far better place without him. Most of those incidents were just absurd.

[The Black Knight]

Steady buddy, the Hulk won Le Mans last year. He is without doubt a top driver. His tall frame has put him at a disadvantage for top seats. That does not reflect on his ability at all. As for Maldonado, he got into a rot and just could not find his way out. We were saying just about the same thing about Grosjean. Luckily he found a way out of his rot. It is a difficult side of racing and darn depressing for a driver while they are in this sort of rot.

I happen to get what a difficult couple of seasons 2014 and 15 must have been for Maldonado; hence l see things differently.

Given that Hulk was the only participating F1 driver in Le Mans last year and that F1 drivers are supposedly the best in the world then he should have won it. That's too bad if his tall frame put him at a disadvantage but that's all part of being an F1 driver.

Actually, I was never that hard on Grosjean because you could see his flaws were something an individual could and wanted overcome and he admitted his mistakes. That's not the case with Maldonado and therein lies his biggest flaw, he didn't believe he had anything to improve upon. Had Maldonado ever even admitted his mistakes, even to himself, it would have been a start, but clearly given his continual tendency smash into other drivers that was not the case.

The 2015 and 15 seasons may have been hard for Maldonado but that hardship was self induced by him and only he is to blame for it so really there's no sympathy to be given there. I had sympathy for Grosjean because he wanted to improve, Maldonado was happy staying stationary and crashing into others.

[Big Ben]

I haven't seen many races in the recent years so I haven't seen Maldonado blossom in what he is today but in one of those rare occasions I had the patience to watch an entire race I could get a glimpse of that magic. It wasn't nothing spectacular but it was magical in it's simple way. He managed to get at least 3 drive-throughs in just one race. Say what you may but the truth is Formula 1 will lose something in 2016, it's definitely going to be less funny.