Lotus believe Pastor Maldonado’s retirement was triggered by heavy contact with the kerbs at Spa-Francorchamps.
Maldonado’s car slowed suddenly on the third lap of the race as he accelerated out of Raidillon.
“We haven’t looked at everything on Pastor’s car yet but we know there was a big excursion over the kerbs which appears to have caused some damage to the power box,” said the team’s technical director Nick Chester, “so a big shame as he should also have achieved a strong result here”.
Maldonado was running ahead of team mate Romain Grosjean, who went on to finish third, at the time of his retirement.
“The car was feeling very good, very competitive and I had a good race start,” said Maldonado. “We had an issue with the drive of the car which the team are investigating.”
“I’m disappointed about the issue we had today but that’s racing sometimes. We are keeping focussed for the next race now and Romain has shown what is possible. I love Italy and Monza so I’ll be doing everything I can for a strong result there.”
2015 Belgian Grand Prix
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- “If drivers respect track limits there’s no problem” – Spa responds to Pirelli over ‘debris’
- Tyres should be able to cope with debris – Massa
- Pirelli urge better track cleaning after Spa blow-outs
- Podium earns Grosjean Driver of the Weekend win
Simon (@weeniebeenie)
23rd August 2015, 18:52
They need to do something about Radillion. So many slo-mo replays clearly showed cars going totally inside the white lines and obviously gaining time but FIA turn a blind eye.
Patrick (@paeschli)
23rd August 2015, 19:00
They even removed the metal strip because it might be dangerous…
They should just put grass there. The current situation is a joke… Of course it’s easy to take the corner flat-out if you cut the corner every time…
George (@george)
23rd August 2015, 19:55
I think part of the problem is the width of the kerb, the coloured part is about the same width if not wider than the car, so it doesn’t really give you anything to aim for. It’s tough there because anything that upsets the car balance can cause a huge accident as it’s already low grip because of the crest.
Bradley Downton (@bradley13)
23rd August 2015, 19:29
I think that’s a given. As it happened I was watching and said ‘He’s cut Radillon far too much there and whacked the kerbs.’ You could almost see it happen.
In fact, I even tweeted Crofty just after stating this exact point…
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
23rd August 2015, 20:14
Less messy than Force India’s kerb problems in Hungary, I guess…
DaveW (@dmw)
23rd August 2015, 21:29
Key question is whether we can now say that Maldonado crashed today.
dragoll (@dragoll)
24th August 2015, 10:19
The kerbs felt the full force of Maldonado today… And the kerbs won.
Ned Ryerson
24th August 2015, 12:38
The article should read “Maldonado contributed to Maldonado’s retirement – again”
Todfod (@todfod)
25th August 2015, 18:18
Maldonado needs to write a book on how not to drive an f1 car.
sato113 (@sato113)
30th August 2015, 22:40
see 9:25 in this video for proof https://vimeo.com/137422184