Williams

It all seems to be happening for Pastor Maldonado at this current moment in time.

A wheel nut fell off his Williams in FP2 of the Indian Grand Prix, leading to a puncture and curtailing his session.

And it emerged last week that an investigation was underway into claims that at least one Venezuelan driver was among those making currency exchanges into dollars at a preferential rate to sell on at a profit on the black market.

Maldonado brings substantial sponsorship to Williams in the form of PDVSA but he told Autosport that he was not worried about the situation and was not one of those drivers involved.

It's not concerning me because I never received money from the Venezuelan state or government. What really happened is that the money is not free and the drivers need to pay for that money because it is currency exchange. There is a programme in Venezuela for sport and you can change money at a lower price. What I heard is that other people, some drivers, were changing money at a preferential price and then they were selling them on the second market.

It is really sad to hear about because this sport was nearly dying some years ago and I worked very hard to recover it and put the sport in a very high position in Latin America. I really hope that this problem does not affect the youngest generation who really need their money to race and to be outside of Venezuela.

But the bigger picture remains as to whether or not the Venezuelan will be at Williams for 2014. The privateer outfit has suffered one of their worst seasons ever, a solitary point courtesy of Maldonado in Hungary all they have to show for their efforts.

Williams was expected to confirm the same driver line-up for next season but it has emerged on ESPNF1 that Felipe Massa, who shares manager Nicolas Todt with Maldonado, is now in talks with the team about a possible drive in 2014.

I'm talking with a few teams, including Williams. What I think and what I believe is something that I've already said, I'm not planning to go to small team. That's what I think and I will not go to a small team. I will go to the team that has some possibilities to do a good car, a team with some direction and is working to do a good car.

Maldonado himself has a contract with Williams for 2014 but he is still to commit.

Next year I have a contract with the team. You never know, at the moment I have not taken any decision. We will see in the next couple of races. Felipe is a very good friend of mine. I wish him all the best and hope he continues in Formula One. For sure I will continue, but I don't know if it will be here at Williams or somewhere else and I hope Felipe does [continue] as well. It's a difficult situation for me to say something about Felipe. We have the same manager, we are looking for a place in Formula One and we will see.

Whilst on the face of things it would appear that Maldonado holds the whip hand as the investment he brings is extremely valuable to Williams but then again where else would he go?

Although anywhere bar Marussia and Caterham would appear a step up, Maldonado has hardly made any huge waves this season to suggest he is a driver in demand. Yet he does have that valuable PDVSA backing which could yet put him in the Lotus frame.

It had been thought that Nico Hulkenberg was the team’s number one priority but it all depends on whether they push through an investment deal with Quantum Motorsports as Hulkenberg brings no investment himself.

If not, Lotus may opt to go with Maldonado and the money he brings and pair him up with Romain Grosjean. The only other two realistic options appear to be Sauber, should Nico Hulkenberg move to Lotus, and Force India who have yet to decide on their 2014 pairing.

But if the Lotus drive does fail to materialise, perhaps he should just sit tight for another season and hope that Williams make significant strides forward to get back to where they once were. Surely it can’t get any worse. Can it?

Rewind just 15 months and the Williams F1 team was celebrating its first Formula One victory since 2004 and a certain Venezuelan’s first in the sport.

Pastor Maldonado’s Spanish Grand Prix triumph could have been a stepping stone for progress, but sadly Williams has gone back into a slump, struggling to compete against the spending might of the big manufacturer-backed outfits after an encouraging preseason.

Despite chief race engineer Xevi Pujolar’s insistence to ESPN that the team is progressing, the results so far haven’t been impressive.

Maldonado got off to a poor start in Australia, being outqualified by his rookie teammate Valtteri Bottas before spinning into retirement after 24 laps. Malaysia saw a second successive retirement due to a KERS issue, and, despite finishing for the first time in China, the Venezuelan was behind his teammate and ahead of only the Marussias and Caterhams.

Bahrain saw an improvement, Maldonado finishing one place out of the points before heading to the scene of last year’s triumph. Maldonado later told his team’s website that he hoped the result would be a stepping stone for more positive results.

Considering the problems we have been having, I think we got 100% out of the car today. We put everything together today, working well as a team and managing the tyres, and 11th was the maximum we could have achieved. We are really looking forward to the next race where we should see a step forward. We must stay together and positive. It's a difficult time, but we still have many races to go.

The step forward Maldonado was hoping for did not materialise though, again being outgunned by Bottas in qualifying and finishing a distinctly average 14th. What a difference a year makes.

Onto Monaco and more misfortune as Max Chilton didn’t see Maldonado to his right and tipped the Williams into the barriers, leading to a drive through penalty for the Brit but another DNF for Maldonado.

Montreal would have been slightly disheartening, if not embarrassing for Maldonado. Before the season the former GP2 champion would have been viewed as the undoubted team No. 1. But Bottas had already bettered him in qualifying in four out of six races, and the young Finn was the star of the show in Canada, putting his Williams a superb third on the grid. Although 14th was a poor return from such a position, he was still the lead Williams at the finish.

Maldonado was now under significant pressure from his own teammate and desperately needed to turn things around at Silverstone. Again it was close, but the Venezuelan came out one place higher in both qualifying and the race to record his second 11th place of the season.

It was back to Bottas in qualifying for Germany, but Maldonado finished a place above him in the team’s landmark 600th race before finally having something to smile about in Hungary with a first points finish of the season. Quoted on his team’s press release afterwards, a relieved Maldonado said his aim was to keep scoring points.

I had a really good start from P15 and made a few overtaking manoeuvres during the race which were on the limit, which is especially pleasing as at this track it is very hard to overtake. The car felt consistent, maybe not as fast in the second and third stints, but very consistent. I really want to keep scoring points now and be even stronger during the second part of the season.

The rumours coming out of Venezuela paper state that Maldonado is in the running for a seat at Ferrari.

According to Correo del Orinoco, a Venezuelan government backed newspaper, Pastor Maldonado is fighting for Ferrari seat in 2014. #F1

— f1talks.pl (@f1talks) August 15, 2013

It seems far fetched and after the promise of 2012 and in his third full season in Formula One, his performances haven’t been what you would expect against his rookie teammate. The jury is still out.

Pastor’s Midseason Marks

Temperament: 6/10

Qualifying: 5/10

Race craft: 6/10

Summary: Has generally been outshone by Bottas in qualifying and not demonstratively better on race pace. The second half of 2013 will be fascinating.

A Finnish driver in the Williams team has a nice little ring to it. The last time that happened was with Keke Rosberg, who won the title with the team in 1982 in his first year with the team.

OK, so the situation is very different today with the cash-strapped privateer team struggling in more ways than one. For latest incumbent, Valtteri Bottas, his debut Formula One season couldn’t be a tougher baptism at the pinnacle of motorsport, and his goal is to learn as much as he can. Points are a mere bonus.

A Competent Start

Bottas came into the team at the expense of Bruno Senna for the 2013 season to team up with proven race winner Pastor Maldonado.

He made a decent start, relatively speaking, out-qualifying Maldonado in Australia and lasting the duration of the race while the more experienced Venezuelan spun into retirement.

A poor qualifying in Malaysia saw Bottas ahead of only the Marussias and the Caterhams, but a superb race followed. The Williams driver overtook a number of cars on a drying track en route to 11th and was tantalisingly close to a maiden point in only his second race.

For the third race in succession, Bottas finished ahead of his teammate in China and out-qualified Maldonado again in Bahrain and Spain, finishing both races albeit behind the Venezuelan.

And so onto Monaco, arguably the sternest of tests for any rookie F1 driver and even more so for the Finn, who had never before raced the circuit in any form of motorsport.

The result?

A 12th-place finish in a race that saw Max Chilton drive into the unfortunate Maldonado. It appears that almost all Finnish drivers do indeed have ice running through their veins.

A Stellar Qualifying Performance

Then came Montreal and what can only be described as one of the most impressive qualifying performances ever by a rookie driver, putting his Williams team an amazing third on the grid in tough, changeable weather conditions.

In a recent interview in August’s F1 Racing magazine, Bottas described his emotion at the highlight of his career to date and said he hoped it would be the start of things to come.

I knew the lap was going to be strong, because of our performance in Q1 and Q2. Still, it was a nice surprise to finish third overall. When I pulled into parc ferme and saw all the mechanics with smiles on their faces it was a great feeling. They were so happy and I could see how much it meant to them. The I stood in the pitlane to pose for the photographers. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel said to me: “What are you doing here?!” Sebastian congratulated me in the press conference which was nice. Of course I would rather have been P1, but I didn’t say that to him. One day, maybe next time.

Alas, Bottas suffered a poor race start and excessive tyre graining in dryer conditions on the way to 14th, but he had more than proven his point.

Two more solid finishes in Britain and Germany meant the young Finn had made it to the chequered flag in all of his first nine grand prix starts. It was just what team boss Frank Williams would have wanted.

The Hungarian Grand Prix saw Bottas fail to finish a race for the first time due to a hydraulics problem as Maldonado delivered the team’s first point. But Bottas must be quietly satisfied to the start to his rookie season as he proudly continues the tradition of Finns in F1.

Valtteri’s Midseason Marks:

Temperament: 7/10

Qualifying: 7/10

Race craft: 7/10

Summary: A very competent start to his Formula One career.

It will come as no surprise to anyone who watches Formula One racing that the FIA is barking mad.

There are innumerable examples of wacky decisions that underscore that particular conclusion; however, the one in question this time is the logic that the appropriate punishment for serial wrecker, Pastor Maldonado, would be to fine him €25,000.

Formula1.com reports the decision as “Maldonado was adjudged to have caused his collision with Sergio Perez, which led to the Sauber driver’s retirement, and due to the seriousness of the incident received a double penalty in the form of a reprimand and a 25,000 euro fine.”

A double penalty! A reprimand is no penalty and €25,000 in the multi-million dollar world of F1 is manifestly ridiculous.

Kamui Kobayashi’s €10,000 fine for running over half of his team seems equally light, but Kobayashi has to work with the guys he ran over so no doubt they’ll make him pay in other ways.

Maldonado has developed an unenviable reputation in F1.

Starting in 2011—his first season in F1—his penchant for running into other drivers was first exposed.

In qualifying for the 2011 Belgian Grand Prix, Maldonado was clipped by a charging Lewis Hamilton at the famous bus-stop chicane. There didn’t seem to be much in it, but Maldonado was somewhat aggrieved and took it upon himself to ram Hamilton’s car on the in-lap.

While some saw Maldonado’s action as retribution for Hamilton’s ill-judged overtaking attempt in Monaco that saw Maldonado cheated of his first points finish in F1, but no matter the reason it was inexcusable.

At Monaco 2012, Maldonado hit Sergio Perez after he perceived that Perez held him up in free practice in what may have been an ill-conceived attempt to cut him off.

Then we have the effort in Valencia where he rammed Hamilton after a failed overtaking manoeuvre saw Maldonado run off the track.

Now we have yet another incident in which Maldonado has taken out a competitor.

At least this collision with Sergio Perez smacked of incompetence as opposed to malice, but it was incompetence borne of an inability to accept being overtaken.

While Lewis Hamilton has steadfastly refused to criticise Maldonado—despite his obvious anger after the collision in Valencia—Sergio Perez, on the other hand, has no such reservations.

"He's a very dangerous driver and he can hurt someone," Perez told BBC Sport. "He's just a stupid driver."

Unsurprisingly, Maldonado can’t see that he’s done anything wrong. On the latest Perez incident he said "I tried to defend and lost the rear of the car on corner entry and we bumped tyres. It was an unlucky race for me and that is it," according to BBC Sport.

On the Valencia incident he told the Mail Online:

I braked on the clean side, but he started to push me off the track. I tried to avoid the accident, but I took the kerb and jumped over him. He made a very aggressive move on me. He tried to put me off the track, which was a big risk for him at the time.

This is a man who makes the Large Hadron Collider look like an underachiever.

The latest penalty is manifestly inadequate. Monetary fines mean nothing and a reprimand makes a slap on the wrist look vicious.

While the behaviour continues, for some reason the FIA thinks that softening the penalties is the best way to go.

For the Spa incident he received a five-spot grid penalty, in Monaco this year he received a 10-place grid penalty, for Valencia it was a drive-through and for his latest effort a reprimand and a fine.

Contrast that with Hamilton losing 24 grid places for running out of petrol.

There’s something wrong with the logic.

The FIA now needs to do something to stop this before someone gets hurt. A Formula One car isn’t a weapon and anyone who uses it as such has no place in the sport.

Maldonado is either malicious or incompetent and either of those is dangerous. It’s time the FIA treated him appropriately.

Five different winners from five different teams take out the first five races of the season. What the hell is going on?

It’s almost as if everyone has forgotten the Formula One script—the one where one team dominates, a couple of others keep them honest and the rest are there to make the track look busy.

Not this year.

We have six, possibly seven teams capable of winning a race with Williams, Sauber, Mercedes and Lotus are joining McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari at the pointy end of the field.

While surprising, the improvement in competitiveness is nowhere near as difficult to explain as the inconsistency of the top teams. No team is seemingly capable of stringing two consecutive races together.

McLaren stormed to victory in the first race and then stumbled in China only to recover in Malaysia and then disappear again in Bahrain.

Ferrari—Fernando Alonso really—have had a victory and second place finish, but have fallen well down the order in other races.

Mercedes, Red Bull, Lotus, Sauber, and Williams have all had the same issues. It just doesn’t make sense.

None of which will be playing on the mind of Pastor Maldonado as he secures his—and his Venezuelan homeland’s—maiden F1 victory and the first for Williams since 2004.

With Lewis Hamilton out of the picture, thanks to a somewhat over-zealous application of a penalty, Maldonado inherited pole position. However, his elevation also brought the supreme racer Fernando Alonso onto the front row.

Alonso leaped off the line and claimed an early lead, but Maldonado showed maturity well beyond his experience and drove his own almost flawless race to secure the win, holding off a late challenge from Alonso and staying clear of a charging Kimi Raikkonen.

Alonso went on to secure second place and in doing so, returned to share the top of the points table in a car that has no right to be there.

As a spectacle, F1 is everything it should be—exciting and unpredictable.

The slightly mad tyre that Pirelli are producing makes deciding on a race strategy extremely difficult. They change characteristics dramatically depending on track temperature and seem to be extremely easy to damage.

Add to that the fact that they “fall off a cliff” in terms of performance after they exceed their maximum wear.

Whether the influence of tyres in making racing more competitive—along with DRS—is a good thing or not is open for debate. While everyone loves the great racing, purists would prefer to see the cars at the heart of that rather than gimmickry.

Preferences are nice, but frankly, we’re willing to look beyond anything to enjoy the racing we currently have.

Who knows what’ll happen next. Isn’t it great?!

Bruno Senna will partner Pastor Maldonado at Williams in 2012.

The announcement brings to a close one of the most drawn-out stories of recent years—and could mark the end of Rubens Barrichello's F1 career.

In a statement on their website, the team said:

Williams F1 today confirmed that Bruno Senna will contest the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship for the Williams F1 Team.  The appointment finalises the team’s line up for this year following confirmation in December that Pastor Maldonado will enter his second season in Formula One as a Williams race driver.  Bruno will make his debut with the Williams F1 Team in Jerez on 9th February at the first of the winter tests.

Senna undoubtedly earned his place with a little help from his sponsors, but his ability and potential had also impressed Frank Williams, the team's owner, who said:

The circumstances of Bruno’s two seasons in Formula One have not given him an ideal opportunity to deliver consistently so it was essential that we spent as much time with him as possible to understand and evaluate him as a driver.  We have done this both on track and in our simulator and he has proven quick, technically insightful and above all capable of learning and applying his learning quickly and consistently.  Now we are looking forward to seeing that talent in our race car.

But while one Brazilian is celebrating, another is left to consider his future.

2011 Williams driver Barrichello, veteran of a record 322 Grand Prix starts, finds himself without a seat in the sport for the first time in 19 years.

Rubens wrote on Twitter:

twitter friends..I won't be driving the Williams car this year.I wish my friend @BSenna all the best..the future is wide open

Barrichello is not the force he once was, and it seems unlikely he will ever race in F1 again.  But at the age of 39, he will be able to look back on a truly staggering career—the length of which may never be equalled.

Senna's arrival at Williams was widely expected, and leaves just a single seat—that at HRT—still up for grabs.  The winner of that particular race will no doubt be announced in the coming days.

Family Connection

To fans of the sport, this is more than just a driver signing to a team—the names "Senna" and "Williams" will forever be linked by the most tragic of circumstances. 

Three-time world champion Ayrton—uncle to Bruno, mentor and friend to Rubens—was killed at the wheel of a Williams at Imola during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. 

To this day, all Williams cars carry an "S" symbol on the bodywork as a tribute to the man many consider the greatest driver of all time.  Bruno's arrival continues the family story.

Bruno Senna has emerged as the clear favourite to claim the second seat at Williams alongside Pastor Maldonado, according to BBC Sport.

The Brazilian appears to have fought off the competition from numerous rivals, in no small part due to a sponsorship package which will bring much-needed income to the team.

But Williams insiders indicated Senna's performances in the latter part of 2011, after he replaced Nick Heidfeld at Renault and qualified seventh in his first outing, also contributed.

If Senna is confirmed, it will leave Williams with one of the most inexperienced driver lineups on the grid, with a combined total of just 45 race starts.  Only Toro Rosso (11) and Force India (38) will field greener combinations.

The available options were reduced with the news Adrian Sutil could be facing a year in prison if assault charges against him over an incident in a Shanghai nightclub in April last year are proven. He could stand trial later this month.

Old hand Rubens Barrichello was thought to be back in the frame following the resignation of Patrick Head from the team's board of directors.  The veteran had reportedly found sponsor backing to compete with his rivals.

However, youth and potential appear to have triumphed over security and experience.

The Senna and Maldonado partnership is certainly a gamble, but with Williams having scored just five points in 2011, perhaps it's not as much of a risk as it may appear. 

Risk implies there is something to lose, and surely it can't get any worse.

Can it?

With the world of F1 closed down for Christmas, it's been a quiet week even by the normal off-season standards.  So we're left to further examine one of the few stories kicking around, as the long-running saga of the second Williams seat continues.

That the once-dominant team look likely to enter 2012 without confirming their driver lineup tells us much about how far they have fallen.

Williams may have lost their prestige but they still have their pride; they want a recognised, talented driver to lead the team back to a more respectable position. 

So one doesn't need a degree in economics to see the problem.  They're holding off confirming their second driver because they simply don't know how much money they're going to need to bring him in.

They'll hold it off as long as possible, trying to secure last-minute sponsorship deals to give themselves greater choice. 

While they'll willingly take one questionably-talented pay driver—Pastor Maldonado—another would be highly undesirable.

They know they can't afford a driver with no backing, so their ideal recruit would be a talented driver who also brings in sponsorship cash.  Three names have been mentioned more than most, so we'll look at that trio.

The first choice appears to be Adrian Sutil.

Sutil has been the front-runner for the drive since it became clear he would not be staying with Force India.  He has talent, can lead a team and would bring in some sponsorship.

But all indications are that with the team's current finances, he would not bring in enough.  Sutil is unaffordable without a cash injection from elsewhere.

That means the second choice gets a look.  At the moment, though another driver is possibly more likely (we'll come to him), that would be—on talent—Vitaly Petrov.

A pairing of Petrov and Maldonado would leave the team with no recognised leader.  Vitaly would be expected to take on the role—and despite his improvement during 2011, question marks remain over his ability.

But if his name is being mentioned, it means he packs a good deal of sponsorship.  More than Sutil offers, or he wouldn't get a sniff.

Trouble is, one of his potential sponsors is Lukoil.  Williams already bear the logo of PDVSA, Venezuela's state oil company, courtesy of Maldonado.  The two might not mix well, so his sponsorship pot could be reduced.

Moving further down the pecking order, we come to a third driver who has been mentioned recently, and has even visited Williams.  Probably ahead of Petrov in probability, but behind him in other areas—is Bruno Senna.

If Petrov and Maldonado would be risky, Senna and Maldonado would be crazy.

Bruno has a very strong sponsor behind him, Brazilian communication giant Embratel.  The company is part of Carlos Slim's Latin American empire, and the world's richest man has shown plenty of interest in F1 already.

But the jury remains out on whether Senna has what it takes to stay in F1.  He has some talent, but we haven't seen enough to know for sure. 

He'd be a choice of last resort.

Well, last resort with the exception of 2011 driver Rubens Barrichello.  He brings no pile of sponsor money, and can't be considered a contender for the seat anymore.

It's tough to watch a team with the proud history of Williams struggling so much, but such is the lot of the independent constructor.  If they can bring in a good sponsor in the coming weeks, we'll surely see Sutil in the car next year.

If they can't—and it's looking increasingly desperate—a move down the list will be required.

Names from the late 90s such as Jordan, Tyrrell, Minardi, Arrows, Prost and Benetton are no longer with us, most taken over and unrecognisable today from the teams they once were.

Williams, along with Sauber, survived takeovers and manufacturer influence to stand today as two of the final remnants of the old independent racers. 

It's nice to see them still on the grid, but one has to wonder how much longer Williams can survive going it alone.