Pastor Maldonado is confident good results are just around the corner when his side of the Lotus garage stops experiencing the sort of poor luck that has been plaguing his 2015 campaign so far.
After five races, the Venezuelan has already been involved in several on-track skirmishes that have led to four retirements and a low-key 15th place finish in Bahrain.
Some incidents happened through no fault of his own though, including the latest clash that saw team-mate Romain Grosjean damage Maldonado’s rear wing endplate during last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix. Although he rues the missed opportunity, the ex-Williams racer remains quite philosophical about the overall situation.
“Our luck hasn’t been great but this is racing,” said Maldonado. “With the damaged rear wing endplate I suffered early in the race, we lost some downforce for sure. However, the pace was still there and I was pushing to try and recover. Unfortunately we had to retire the car on Lap 45.
“It was a very little touch. It happened but we move on, it’s all a part of racing.”
Maldonado also takes encouragement from Grosjean’s run of three top-ten finishes and sees it as a testament to the strong pace shown by their Mercedes-powered Lotus E23 Hybrid this year.
“We have a car that has a lot of potential and we are fighting ever higher in the field. We have a good engine and the tyres are lasting longer and that makes us confident that we can get some good results in the near future. We need to stay strong and as soon as the bad luck passes it will be very fun!”
A two-time GP2 race winner at Monaco, Maldonado’s best F1 result around the winding Monte Carlo streets remains the lacklustre P18 he secured during his maiden season in the sport (2011).
Last year’s edition proved even frustrating for the Venezuelan who failed to take the start after he could not get off the line to complete the traditional formation lap.
Click here for a light-hearted look at some of the scenes from last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix
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