Williams: Maldonado reaches Q3 but still no points

2011 Spanish GP team review

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Williams point-less streak continued in Spain despite a top-ten start for Pastor Maldonado.

Technical director Sam Michael said the team had a lot to work on: “Although our end positions don’t look like it, we are improving but it is extremely tight in the midfield. If you don’t get it right, you end up 15th instead of 10th.

“The main thing for us now is to keep focused and to improve the upgrades we bring to the car.

“Over the next couple of races in particular we need to get the front and rear wings and the diffuser working. Today we had a problem with the rear jack on both cars so we will look into that before Monaco.”

Rubens Barrichello Pastor Maldonado
Qualifying position 19 9
Qualifying time comparison (Q1) 1’26.910 (+3.504) 1’23.406
Race position 17 15
Laps 64/66 65/66
Pit stops 4 4

Williams drivers’ lap times throughout the race (in seconds):

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61
Rubens Barrichello 107.077 95.18 95.129 94.693 94.716 94.248 94.265 93.952 93.675 94.548 97.342 118.04 90.996 92.666 91.586 91.292 91.015 91.124 91.933 92.571 92.727 92.647 94.975 108.174 90.263 90.224 90.302 90.116 90.416 90.681 90.846 91.041 91.463 92.04 94.1 109.967 91.595 91.559 91.456 91.262 91.786 90.81 90.807 91.118 91.799 92.34 91.19 91.375 92.214 91.863 91.947 92.256 92.397 94.907 107.214 87.222 88.652 87.808 87.629 86.891 87.991
Pastor Maldonado 102.255 93.713 92.865 92.747 92.907 92.201 92.648 95.624 109.981 91.695 92.954 91.452 91.421 92.886 93.407 92.139 92.002 92.058 91.927 95.89 111.772 89.394 90.119 91.427 90.208 90.804 91.655 91.593 90.464 90.554 90.544 91.057 90.761 90.956 92.082 94.636 110.433 90.249 90.749 90.376 91.688 90.576 92.28 91.025 90.598 90.717 90.823 90.321 90.524 91.492 90.931 93.575 95.21 108.76 89.883 89.682 89.868 89.922 89.921 89.759 89.862

Rubens Barrichello

Barrichello’s qualifying was ruined by a gearbox problem, leaving him 19th on the grid albeit with a full stock of fresh soft tyres.

He started the race on hard tyres with the intention of getting that stint out of the way early. But he had to run a final stint on hard tyres again and, like Maldonado, he was delayed by slow pit stops due to the jack problem.

More problems with the Kinetic Energy Recovery System cost him further time. “That’s another race with no points”, he said. “We need to improve”.

Rubens Barrichello 2011 form guide

Start, Barcelona, 2011

Pastor Maldonado

Gave the team some cheer by making it into Q3 for the first time. “The car wasn’t great so we took a bit of a risk and decided to run the new rear wing in qualifying”, he said.

But having started ninth he was down to 13th by the first corner: “We didn’t have a great start, which is something we need to work on.”

Made four stops like his team mate – who he passed at one point. Finished the race trying to pass Sebastien Buemi for 14th.

Pastor Maldonado 2011 form guide

2011 Spanish Grand Prix

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    Image © Williams/LAT

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    22 comments on “Williams: Maldonado reaches Q3 but still no points”

    1. It is strange to see a tem like Sauber, scoring points in every race ( yeah I know, first race), yet a team like Williams, struggling to make it past 15th place.
      It’s hard to point a finger at what exactly the problem is. But it’s mighty sad and I fear Williams are contemplating finishing in 9th position in the constructors.

      1. Sauber just seem to be quietly doing their own thing, not going for super speed, but a bit more moderate, and much more drivable car, allowing them to have good races wherever they qualify.

        I think comparing Williams and FI at this time is a bit more apt, they both have issues getting the updates working as well as they would like, but FI have more reliability, and seem to be more on top of what to expect from the car in the race (maybe more realism?).

        Also, FI have two drivers that they can give a working car to do a good job, Williams seem unable to get both cars reliable and both drivers in a position to race well.

        It is still sad to see them struggling so much.

        1. Barrichello last year beat the highly-rated Hulkenberg, and he is excellent in providing development information due to his experience. Maldonado is faring badly compared to Di Resta, and both are rookies.

          1. This whole “good development driver” thing was something that Rubens himself was lauding at the back half of last year, saying this was the most he’d had a chance to assist in the direction of a car for a long time.

            On the current car, he’s suddenly saying everything is unnacceptable, yet presumably he’s been part of the dev direction they’ve taken.

    2. Maldonado was back to his poor form in the race, but hats off to him in Quali. He put his car just a tenth of a second within Massa’s time. Gotta feel sorry for Williams though, it looks like they will be battling the Lotus for the 9th spot in the WCC.

      1. I bet it got them a feel a stone fall off their harts.

        In the end it was just a small dot of light at the end of a very long and deep tunnel though.

      2. I’ve yet to be impressed by hm in any way, but if you believe Will Buxton, Maldonado flys at Monaco and can be unstoppable. If they really have made an improvement in the car, he could at least have his best finish so far, even if he doesn’t make it into the points. It’ll be interesting to see if that carries over from GP2 to F1, given the increase in speed.

    3. Two typos in the first bit: Sprain and focussed.

      Then again, perhaps the first is a joke about the race. If so, I love it.

      1. Corrected, thanks.

    4. Barrichello’s early first pitstop looks totally insane. The punishment was that final pitstop at the very end of the race.

    5. So…
      Sam Michael: “we need to get the front and rear wings and the diffuser working.”
      Sam Michael, again: “we had a problem with the rear jack … so we will look into that”
      Barrichello’s gearbox failed.
      Barrichello’s KERS failed.
      Pastor Maldonado: “We didn’t have a great start, which is something we need to work on.”

      Does anything work properly on this car?

      1. dyslexicbunny
        23rd May 2011, 15:02

        I believe it does a fantastic job of keeping the livery attached. Haven’t noticed that coming off yet.

        1. Well thats good, the livery is the best bit!

    6. Maldonado is taking time to settle in, no doubt. But cant people remember how Kamui also had a slow start to his first full season, then picked up.

      The williams is a car that even Barichello is struggling to get into a decent quali and race position at the moment, so why should Pastor be any different.

      He is an absolute Monaco demon by the way, so watch out for this weekend. I think from memory he’s won the GP 2 race for something like 4 of the last 5 years.

      As much as everyone wants to think the only reason he’s in F1 is because of his sponsors, I cant accept that. I’m sorry but you dont get to win the GP2 championship on sponsors bucks alone…

      Good luck for the rest of the season pastor.

      1. I’m sorry but you dont get to win the GP2 championship on sponsors bucks alone…

        That’s true but that season his main competition was mainly rookies.

        1. But Maldonado never had a top team until 2009, when he was ahead of Hulkenberg until Germany. He then had a run of bad form/bad luck until the end of the season. In GP2, of course, if you have a bad result in race 1, there is very little chance of points in race 2, and that seems to be what happened to him. People always say that Hulkenberg destroyed him, but that is a case of reading too much from the final championship standings.

          And by the way, in terms of raw pace Maldonado has been closer to Barrichello than Hulkenberg was at this stage last year.

          1. I’m really not impressed, There’s quite a few guys waiting for their turn at F1 that have shown more potential. Including Nico.

            1. Hulkenberg had his chance and blew i for a number of reasons. Give Maldonado some time!

    7. Maybe not on sponsor bucks alone, but it did take him 4 years and early graduations for Petrov and Di Grassi to win it against a field full of 2nd year drivers and rookies.

      Speed is bot his problem though, it has never been (more like lack of consistency and wild mistakes), and as you say he is an absolute beast at Monaco, where good things should be expected from him.

    8. Depressing to say the least. However, they know how bad things are. Let’s look forward to 2012.

      I guess the irony is that they would love to ditch this year and focus on next year, sounds early but with technical staff changes it’s important to get a head start. However you need decent points to secure some sort of cash reward from the FIA.

    9. Not sure whether Williams will have one of the best season of their life this season.

    10. He has guaranteed time. PDVSA bought that seat for at least 3 years, and the venezuelans in GP2 are slow, so he has no threats in the horizon.

      PS who gave Hulkenberg time?

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