Mike Coughlan speaks in defence of Pastor Maldonado – Formula 1 news
Williams F1’s car designer, Mike Coughlan, has spoken in defence of their driver, Pastor Maldonado, saying that his accidents were results of intense midfield competition.
“We win as a team and lose as a team,” Coughlan told Speed Week. “Of course we’ve been through some difficult situations together and he will have learned from it. But it's not our style to point the finger at someone. It could just as well be argued that
if we had given him a better car, he would not have been battling in the midfield so often.”
Coughlan said that the reason of their improvement this season were the new Renault engines.
“The biggest advantage has been the Renault engine — light, powerful, reliable,” he added. “It meant we were able to focus entirely on aerodynamic development, and it paid off.”
Maldonado was given many penalties throughout the season and he was involved in many crashes including a one with Sergio Perez that he could have avoided. At the same time, the Venezuelan driver also secured his maiden pole which actually became possible
after Lewis Hamilton was disqualified due to having insufficient fuel in his McLaren.
However, Maldonado converted that pole into victory at the Spanish Grand Prix. Not only was this the first ever Victory for Williams F1 since 2004 but also the driver has now become the first Venezuelan to win a Grand Prix.
The 2011 F1 season was the worst year in the history of the team as they suffered from reliability issues and poor pace from the drivers. However, the change to Renault engines has immensely improved the team’s performance as they scored 76 points this past
season as compared to the 5 points in 2011. The team finished eighth at the end of the season which is an improvement from their ninth standing in 2011.
Williams F1 will be promoting their test driver, Valtteri Bottas, to an official driver in 2013 in a replacement for their previous driver, Bruno Senna. Bottas had been in contract to drive Senna’s car during the Friday practice sessions in the 2012 F1 season.
Bottas has stated that these sessions will help him in 2013.
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