Williams praises Maldonado

This is one way to convince the skeptics that Pastor Maldonado’s only talent is not a briefcase full of bills… “ The work provided during the short tests in which he took part was very good, confided Sam Michael. What I appreciate, and I opened up about it to Frank Williams and Patrick Head is that he has natural talent. The first days, in Valencia, we analyzed the data well by comparing them to those of Rubens (Barrichello, his teammate, Editor’s note) and it confirmed it ».

The Technical Director of the Grove team concedes, however, that with his limited experience of F1, we should not expect a miracle straight away. “ Pastor is a rookie. He will make mistakes and suffer a few crashes, like all beginners. But what impresses me, probably because he is 25 years old, five years older than the young people currently arriving, is that he already has a higher level of maturity. It is most encouraging ».

The presence, at his side, of Rubens Barrichello will certainly be a great help for the Venezuelan in his discovery of F1. Especially since the vision of things does not seem very far from that of the Brazilian veteran, as Michael points out: “ For the set-up, he very quickly went in the same direction as Rubens. This undoubtedly comes from the maturity and experience acquired in small categories. But I will be clear, Rubens remains the key driver in determining the path to take with the settings. For Pastor, the objective is to learn as much as possible from him. He concluded.