Pastor Maldonado will continue to drive for Lotus next year, the team have confirmed.
Team principal Federico Gastaldi said Maldonado will remain with the team for a second year in a Q&A on the team’s website.
“I can confirm 50% of our driver line-up for 2015 as Pastor is with us for next year,” said Gastaldi.
“Despite the difficulties we’ve had so far this season, he recognises our true potential as a team and we recognise his true potential as a driver. We will achieve great things together.”
Lotus have suffered a difficult start to the season and scored only eight point so far, all of which were earned by Maldonado’s team mate Romain Grosjean.
“Romain is well aware of the prowess of Enstone after having finished on the podium for the past two years in one of our cars,” said Gastaldi. “Pastor was new to the team for this year but he recognises the potential of the squad.”
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Image © Lotus/LAT
activewings (@activewings)
19th July 2014, 20:56
RIP Lotus. I hope Romain finds a better team.
tino852 (@tino852)
19th July 2014, 20:58
Long may he reign!
Rigi (@rigi)
19th July 2014, 20:59
Romain definately needs to move teams now. Lotus is no longer a good place to stay.
Dave (@)
19th July 2014, 21:01
Why, because they’ve secured substantial funding for next year?
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
19th July 2014, 21:05
With a good engine too.
Breno (@austus)
19th July 2014, 23:04
Because they gave up on the WCC.
Jack_Hider (@jackhider)
19th July 2014, 23:22
What?
Rigi (@rigi)
20th July 2014, 8:07
@raceprouk because a team with maldonado in it isn’t going to fight for the championship. maldonados feedback for a car is basically non-existant, look at williams 2013 and 2011. when he had a good car in 2012 he failed to seize any opportunity (except barcelona). maldonado only brings money to the team, and if you ask me, i don’t like to look at the lotus with all the PDVSA badges.
JackySteeg (@jackysteeg)
19th July 2014, 21:05
An alternative headline would be “Lotus secures finances for 2015”, so in that sense, this is very, very good news.
Deej92 (@deej92)
19th July 2014, 21:08
I know this is an article regarding Maldonado, but can Grosjean stay with Lotus considering they are switching to Mercedes engines next year? I can’t see Total fuelling a Mercedes engine and Grosjean has had links to Renault for years. Then again, maybe Lotus can live without Total’s money due to this news and Grosjean can cut all ties to Renault. It’s an interesting one anyway.
Dave (@)
19th July 2014, 21:50
I doubt Total are all that bothered about fuelling a German-badged engine instead of a French-badged one.
Deej92 (@deej92)
21st July 2014, 16:57
We’ll see.
Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
19th July 2014, 21:10
Well Maldonado hasn’t exactly been driving brilliantly nor have Lotus delivered a car which is fast or reliable… I’m amazed Maldonado hasn’t looked elsewhere to be honest…
PieLighter (@pielighter)
19th July 2014, 21:28
@craig-o I still find it funny that he jumped ship from Williams, crying foul. Look where Williams are now, and see where Maldonado ended up.
maarten.f1 (@)
19th July 2014, 22:25
@craig-o Perhaps he has, but perhaps nobody has been looking for Maldonado (well, I suppose Caterham, Marussia or Sauber wouldn’t mind having him (or rather the paycheck)).
bull mello (@bullmello)
19th July 2014, 21:50
In other words, the money is still flowing even if Maldonado has been outperformed by his team mate in a rather recalcitrant beast of a car. Grosjean has scored all of the team’s 2014 points, by the way.
There is something so wrong with this; “Romain is well aware of the prowess of Enstone…”
Sadly the financial problems (mismanagement?) of this team have led to the re-signing of a questionable pay driver after many of the top technical staff have long since flown the coop. Merely having a Mercedes engine package won’t solve their deeper issues.
TommyB (@tommyb89)
19th July 2014, 22:34
It must have been that incredible lap that put him within half a second of Bianchi that got him the contract offer.
Daniel (@collettdumbletonhall)
19th July 2014, 23:39
haha
Jimbo Hull (@kartingjimbo)
20th July 2014, 10:59
Hahaha amen
sozavele (@formula-1)
19th July 2014, 22:37
I’m not sure why and even with the French ties and Renault ties I can see Romain ending up at McLaren next season.
Breno (@austus)
19th July 2014, 23:06
I dont quite see it happening, but it would be a decent move from Grosjean, either he gets back into the high midfield or he gets a shot at a new era for Mclaren.
S.Hein
20th July 2014, 4:11
The thing is, is that a good move from lotus to mclaren? Mc have their young drivers and Magnussen is performing ok(he’s a rookie after all). I suspect Mclaren could give RoGro for, let’s say, 1 year’s drive and see how he performs. If he really didn’t like the car, Mclaren could use their young drivers like Vandoore and Romain will probably end up like Kovalainen. Of course that is just personal suspect. I’m a RoGro fan and Hopefully there’s a bright future for him.
OmarR-Pepper (@)
19th July 2014, 22:50
Maybe the Twitter guy is better out of Lotus, because he would have made so much fun of “Enstone prowess” that he’d ‘ve been fired anyway.
Paul (@frankjaeger)
20th July 2014, 0:01
yay?
chris96GR
20th July 2014, 0:07
God help us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
chris96GR
20th July 2014, 0:10
he should be kicked out from F1
Yes (@come-on-kubica)
20th July 2014, 0:17
Do we really have to put up with this man for another season? He’s probably been the worse driver this season or maybe Sutil/Gutierrez. I could see Romain move on, maybe Boullier will get him at Mclaren and oust Whitmarsh’s boy Jenson.
MarkM (@mpmark)
20th July 2014, 0:43
I have no respect for Lotus anymore…
Fikri Harish (@)
20th July 2014, 8:11
Considering the amount of money they’re going to get for their position in the WCC right now, which I doubt is going to change for the better, I’d say this is pretty much inevitable.
Darren B (@downwithdrs)
20th July 2014, 9:38
Pastor needs to perform well next year, otherwise he needs to find another vocation!
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
20th July 2014, 10:24
I’m wondering, whether it’s really worth having Maldonado in the team. Yes, he brings a big bag of money, but Lotus lose money, when 1) they have to repair his car after he crashes; 2) a better drivers would bring better results to the team, which would turn to more prize money and maybe attracting more sponsorship; 3) a better driver would certainly push development of the car more and would also turn to better results (and I mentioned what better results mean in paragraph 2).
I don’t say they have to hire a big name like Raikkonen, which is very expensive, but there are lots of cheap quality drivers like Hulkenberg, Perez, Frinjs or Bianchi.
R.J. O'Connell (@rjoconnell)
20th July 2014, 17:45
This is pretty much the definition of “buying low”.
I just hope that with Merc engines and hopefully, HOPEFULLY a restructured team for 2015 and a more capable chassis, that we get the 2012 Maldonado back, because that dude was fun to watch.
Tivjard
23rd November 2014, 15:16
Maldonado should not be racing in F1. Other than been one of the worst drivers, his country is bankrupted, the only reason he still races is because of corruption. F1 organizers should look very deeply into this matter.