Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Maldonado feels his image is being tarnished

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Pastor Maldonado believes he is unfairly treated in F1 and media pressure tarnishes his image.

The Venezuelan has been involved in numerous collisions in his career, and received three penalties in the Hungarian Grand Prix alone. While admitting there are a number of occasions when he has been at fault for causing an incident, Maldonado says it has become an automatic reaction to blame him for anything he is involved in.

"Yes, I have responsibility on some occasions," Maldonado told GloboEsporte. "I also remember an experience that made me laugh. It was this year in China, when Jenson [Button] hit the back of my car. Everyone said I was to blame, because whenever I am involved in an incident everyone says I'm to blame.

"I read some news that I was responsible and should have been punished by the stewards. There is always pressure from the media, whether I'm right or wrong. There is always something that seeks to conceal my talent and tarnish my image in Formula 1."

And Maldonado says there are certain collisions which are dismissed due to who is involved rather than based on the severity of the incident.

"I'll be honest, if you ask me if I like, the answer is of course not. I prefer other kinds of opinion, especially the truth. Yes, I was involved in some incidents. But imagine, for example, if in the crash in Austria [when Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso collided] it was my car instead of the McLaren of Fernando.

"And what happened? Nothing, no one was punished, just a racing accident from two of the world champions. If I was involved, it would be a big scandal, there would be a huge media pressure."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.