Lotus' warning to Maldonado
http://www.planetf1.com/driver/3213/...g-to-Maldonado
He may come with one of the "biggest" sponsorships in F1 but Lotus have warned Pastor Maldonado he needs to prove himself out on track.
Last season, his first year with Lotus, the Venezuelan driver managed just two points although that was largely due to an under-performing E22.
However, this season he has yet to get off the mark in a vastly improved E23.
While team-mate Romain Grosjean has 12 Championship points, Maldonado has three retirements and a lacklustre P15 to his name.
And Lotus' CEO Matthew Carter has now warned the driver that sponsorship does not make up for a lack of results.
"PDVSA are probably one of the biggest sponsors within F1," he told Autosport.
"They are a good sponsor, and while our latest figures stack up, they stack up contingent on PDVSA being involved within the team.
"At the moment they are part and parcel of what makes up our budget, so we're not looking to change.
"But then no driver is in a position where they cannot be dropped.
"They're only as good as their previous performances, and ultimately Pastor proves himself on the track."
Carter, though, is confident that Maldonado, who has one F1 victory to his name having triumphed at the 2012 Spanish GP, can produce the results required.
"He gets a lot of bad press, but he is a good driver," he continued.
"He's also a quick driver, we know that, we know what he does in the simulator and what he does off the track.
"He didn't have a good car last year - neither him nor Romain [Grosjean] had a good car - and both of them were probably guilty of trying to overdrive it because of the problems they had with it.
"This year they do have a good car. With Pastor, his qualifying hasn't been great and he would be the first to admit to that.
"In the first race [in Australia] he had a fantastic start, but was shunted off the track, similarly in the second [in Malaysia].
"In China, in the first half of the race he drove really well, but had a slight issue with his brakes coming into the pit, and then it was playing catch up from there on.
"Overall we believe we've given him the right tools this year to prove himself, and he's the rest of the season to do that."