He is surely right. Williams is not going to catch STR or be caught by Marussia or Caterham in the constructors' championship, and the relations between Dolan and Williams seem to be poor. Why not fk with him a bit, since he's leaving anyway.
Personally cant see a team not doing their best for a driver, intentionally atleast. More likely track conditions changed dramatically and hit a nerve, and threw him off for the rest of Q. Not like he is the only driver unusually far off their team mate.
Maldonado is not good enough, simple as that. The only reason he is in F1 is because Williams got paid a lot of money to take him. I will be happy to see the back of the corrupt bastard.
He won a race last season and drove pretty good at points. He is hardly a terrible driver, but he wouldn't be moving up the grid without the money. Bottas has done really well this season in Q against Maldonado, his race performances havent stood out, but I guess they take weird strategies hoping to luck into points, because if they do the same as everyone else they won't score.
Although internet warriors are fuelled by pontification and high principles (that they're never judged on themselves), F1 teams need money.
So you'd hire Hulkenberg? Which departments would you close to save the money to make up for not taking a pay driver? Wind Tunnel? R&D? Maybe you could get some fans to make up the pit crew each weekend?
At this point it looks more and more the future of lotus f1 is about survival than it is about driver lineups and r&d to stay in top 3-5. 2014 is shaping up to be incredibly expensive season and it looks pretty bad for lotus imho. If I was maldonado I'd think really hard bofere going to lotus...
Well done Mr. Vale!
After a maiden podium in Austria earned after great quali, the 2nd place in Silverstone from the back of the grid shows his real potential.