Maldonado: Williams exit was a bad decision

Editor

With Williams on the up and Lotus’ future yet to be resolved, Pastor Maldonado concedes leaving Williams was “not a great” decision.

The 30-year-old’s Formula 1 career began with the Williams team in 2011. However, after three trying seasons – which did include a surprise victory at the 2012 Spanish GP – he swapped to Lotus.

That move co-incided with a resurgance for Williams.

While Lotus struggled for pace and reliability, not helped by Maldonado’s crashes, Williams claimed nine podium results on their way to third in the Championship.

It has been more of the same this season as crashes and reliability have hampered Maldonado while Williams have again been fight for podiums.

Recently asked whether he was frustrated by the change in fortunes, Maldonado told Crash.net: “Frustrating is not the right word, it’s just difficult. It was not a great [decision], but I’m working very hard together with the team.

“As a sportsman you always have a lot of hunger and you always have a lot of expectation in your life. At some point you have to take decisions and wherever it goes you must take it with responsibility and with all the passion you have. That’s what I did.

“It’s a fantastic team, maybe not with all the facilities all the other teams have – especially from the economic side – but on the other hand I have been learning a lot to work more together as a team with a very different philosophy. I am 100 percent sure that will help me in my future.

“We are not reaching the results we expected, but on the other hand I have been leaning a lot, big experience, which is great.”