Who is this guy? Defending the indefensible
Pastor Maldonado is not the first man to upset his fellow drivers
Published by Jordan F1
"This madman is a menace to himself and everybody else and does not belong in F1." - Emerson Fittipaldi.
Well, all this sounds familiar does it now? Let us ban a certain driver on an English team forever from F1 as he is a menace to other drivers. Except in this case the driver came from McLaren!
Yup McLaren. This driver from a country in the Southern hemisphere had a reputation for being wild and crashing even before he entered Formula One, but if he did keep the car between the edges of the track for the entire race then points would surely follow.
Twice the time available
It has been 30 races into the career of this driver and he has won three races in total. Mind you, three years have passed and a very significant event happened to this driver which changed his attitude forever. Now 30 races are completed in just one and a half seasons so you have to wonder what happens to a driver if he has twice the time available to mature as a person after being able to reflect on a very significant event.
The event in question was the death of François Cevert at Watkins Glen. "From then on all I was trying to do in Formula One was save my life," he said.
This quote came from the mouth of Jody Scheckter. Before and maybe during his time at Tyrrell he was even more notorious than Pastor Maldonado for ruining people's races, to the effect that McLaren had to bench their driver for four events as a punishment for one of F1's most famous multi-car crashes, at Silverstone in 1973. If McLaren had not done so, the chances where excellent that Jody would have been banned from F1 for good. A man, who within five years of his 31st Formula One start would be a World Champion for Ferrari.
World Champion someday
Am I saying that Maldonado is the next Jody Scheckter? Of course not! By my calculations, Maldonado still has about seven more cars to crash into, just to equal Scheckter's carnage of 12 wrecked cars at Silverstone 1973 alone, then smash into Sebastian Vettel in another incident, before Maldonado comes anywhere near the "South-African Wild Man".
Oh, you mean Maldonado as a World Champion some day? I do not know, four years is an awful long time in F1, enough to calm down your aggressiveness, and sharpen your skills as a driver. I do know for sure that when Jody joined Tyrrell, I would have had serious doubts about him being a World Champion someday, and I could have imagined him getting the boot sooner rather than later.
I wrote this post a while ago before Maldonado crashed into a curb during a demo lap in Venezuela. And while laughing at Maldonado I could not help but think of myself looking silly by comparing Maldonado to a Formula One champion even though Scheckter was as bad as Maldonado was in his beginning.
Fortunately Lukeh at Gridwalk Talk came to my rescue by comparing Maldonado to Ayrton Senna! Now before you say he is crazy he does bring up the biggest reason why I dislike Senna, and for that matter Schumacher - their readiness to crash into their closest rival to secure a championship.
As for Scheckter being horrible in his early days here is a clip of his most famous bit of work.
So will Maldonado see the light and calm down as a driver, figuring out where he can pass and keep the car on the track, or will crashing into everyone and everybody become a preferred race tactic?
If poor defenseless kerbing can fall victim to Maldonado, his rivals are fair game! More likely, Maldonado might be removed from F1, and that may be a pity.
Awww, you guys could not find a picture of a destroyed McLaren M23, could you? :^P Ken Tyrrell was staringt to smack some sence into Jody while he was driving for his team....
While doing the research into this piece, I found out that Emo's quote was from the 1973 French Grand Prix which was held before Silverstone and a certain South African smashed into Emo's car. So it is quite safe to say Emo was leading the charge to have Scheckter banned from racing for good.
I am confused. The 1973 British GP was Scheckter's 4 GP not his 30th. His 30th was the 1975 French GP by which time he was a Tyrrell driver.
There is no doubt he was wild in his early days but so were a lot of fast drivers. They did not have the advantage of simulators, telemetry or even lots of on board video/film. So the only way to find the limit was to go out and lean against it. Occasionally they overstepped the mark.
In the incident in the video clip it looked like he was carrying a little too much speed offline and put a wheel on the grass. That is hardly the same as using his car like a weapon.
The odds on Maldonado winning a championship brings to mind Peter Warr's famous comment on the likelihood of Nigel Mansell winning a GP. If you don't know that comment you will need to google it because it is not at all suitable for repetition here.
It's interesting that Fittipaldi was trying to get a McLaren driver banned when he would drive for them the following season and become the first driver to win the title in a Woking car.
Yeah, it is not my greatest ever written line is it? "It has been 30 races into the career of this driver and he has won three races in total" When I palnned to post this Maldonado completed his 30th Grand Prix and I wanted to see what Scheckter did in 30 races as a comparsion.
Scheckter's won three races and his on his way to glory.
Maldie's won a race and is on his way into kamikazing into a curb.
Well, even Maldie was not so hopless as to have half the F1 grid ready to hang him after four races. Scheckter only did the 72 Glen, and 73 South Africian GPs before the events in question.
There's still the French Grand Prixc 1973, and looking to the future a bit, Scheckter's about to celebrate his return to F1 after teh four race ban by crashing to Crevert in Canada. And of all teh people you do not want to crash into, surely the person that going to be your teammate for next year (1974) has to be at the top of the list. You see, Ken Tyrrell had Scheckter pegged as Jackie Stewart's replacement.
So Scheckter must have left a trail of wrecked races onn his road up to F1 to bad he found his rep well established in F1 then.....
That depends which source you believe. Some say Scheckter was an after thought and originally Gerry Birrell was going to be Cevert's apprentice. He was very much Ford's choice. Unfortunately he had an accident that was to all intents and purposes identical to Cevert's so Tyrrell had its whole team wiped out.
The problem with that is that Birrell died before Scheckter started his run of F1 crashes at the French Grand Prix. So Scheckter is looking like a more obvious replacement ((June - July 1973 time frame).
Ford were pushing Tyrrell to take him and remember Stewart had told Tyrrell and Walter hays of Ford early in the season that he would retire. Tyrrell's success had been gained with a clear number one teaching his successor. Birrell would have fitted a continuation of the pattern where Scheckter was ready to win races in his own right. Cevert had waited a long time to be team leader and had an offer from Ferrari. You have to wonder if he would have been happy to accept Scheckter as a team mate.
find one? easy - www.latphoto.co.u…rch/photos/942885
but be willing to pay to licence it for use here? no chance.
Now that's an interesting comparison, it would never have occurred to me. I hope he does calm down because he clearly does have some speed. He just needs to learn to cool his head more often.
Having just watched the video, and on another note, how old does Silverstone look? And that was 40 years ago! The cars look and sound amazing though. That accident was quite scary. The scariest part is actually the following lap when the cars were barely slowed down coming into Woodcote, Jackie barely got it stopped in time and he's Jackie Stewart. Worrying.
The really scary part is that Maldonado would not be the only champion that started off as a pay driver. As the Germans say "Ein Prost fur Lauda". :^P...
It would have helped if the marshalls had bought out the right coloured flag along the straight. I am sure the Marshalls before Woodcote, seeing RED flags instead of yellows, would have entered the track waving yellow flags just to slow cars down sooner... ....
i think maldonado's let this post go to his head:
"Before leaving Williams I would like to win the championship with them."
en.espnf1.com/wil…/story/86553.html
Well, in the good old days winnning the championship and then asking for a raise was the fastest ever way of getting out of Williams a la Mansell, Prost, Hill...
Actually was surprized that Villeneuve lasted until 1999, to be honest...
Well. if Ralfie lasted as long as he did at Williams, there might be hope for Maldie....
Maldonado has the speed and passion for sure. He's guaranteed a seat at Williams so long as he has sponsorship. If he learns to calm down a bit he may end up being a really good driver. Only time will tell.
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