{"id":19623,"date":"2013-10-18T06:59:05","date_gmt":"2013-10-18T10:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=19623"},"modified":"2013-10-18T06:59:05","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T10:59:05","slug":"maldonado-exit-opens-williams-door-for-massa-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/maldonado-exit-opens-williams-door-for-massa-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Maldonado exit opens Williams door for Massa – reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor Maldonado’s exit at Williams could pave the way for Felipe Massa, the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo is reporting.<\/p>\n

\"Pastor-Maldonado-3\"Correspondent Livio Oricchio claims talks between Venezuelan Maldonado’s management and sponsors, and bosses of the Grove based team, are taking place now.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old has reportedly run out of patience at Williams, despite the fact his powerful sponsors PDVSA remain under contract to the British team.<\/p>\n

Williams admits it has a problem.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never seen a racing car that reacts so little to modifications,” veteran team manager Dickie Stanford told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport, referring to the FW35 that has powered Maldonado to just a single point in 2013.<\/p>\n

One unnamed team member, however, said 2012 Spanish grand prix winner Maldonado has also been part of the problem.<\/p>\n

“He still makes too many mistakes,” the team member is quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

“In Korea, we told him repeatedly in the last stint to take care of the right front and, if possible, stay out of the battles.<\/p>\n

“But what did he do?\u00a0 Drives like a madman and ruins his tyres within three laps.”<\/p>\n

Maldonado also reportedly infuriated team bosses when he forced past teammate Valtteri Bottas in the final corner of the last lap in Japan, for a mere 16th place.<\/p>\n

Both Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport and O Estado de S.Paulo say Maldonado is eyeing departing Kimi Raikkonen’s seat at Lotus.<\/p>\n

Lotus would apparently prefer to sign Nico Hulkenberg, but that depends on the team finalising its 35 per cent sale to a group of investors known as Quantum.<\/p>\n

“They (Quantum) are always saying ‘We’re coming, we’re coming’, but nothing happens,” a Lotus source told Oricchio.<\/p>\n

That is where Maldonado could come in.\u00a0 His sponsor PDVSA, bringing EUR 35 million a year to Williams, remains under contract to Williams for two more years.<\/p>\n

But Oricchio said exit talks between the Maldonado camp and Williams are taking place.<\/p>\n

Auto Motor und Sport’s Michael Schmidt said deputy team boss Claire Williams was in Caracus recently, amid rumours PDVSA could pay millions to buy its way out of the deal.<\/p>\n

Oricchio agreed that the exit talks have intensified since Suzuka.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan state oil company would then back Maldonado’s switch to Lotus.<\/p>\n

It is said Maldonado’s manager, Nicolas Todt, is pushing for the deal to happen because it would open Williams’ door to his other charge, Felipe Massa.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian, who has reportedly put together a sponsor package worth about EUR 6 million, including Petrobras, is looking for a drive for 2014 after losing his seat at Ferrari.<\/p>\n

Todt said: “Yes, it’s been difficult for Pastor this year, with a car that does not allow the drivers to score points.<\/p>\n

“They have to react and they have been hiring new people.\u00a0 Next year it (Williams) would be an excellent option for Felipe.”<\/p>\n

\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pastor Maldonado’s exit at Williams could pave the way for Felipe Massa, the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo is reporting. Correspondent Livio Oricchio claims talks between Venezuelan Maldonado’s management and sponsors, and bosses of the Grove based team, are taking place now. The 28-year-old has reportedly run out of patience at Williams, despite the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[434,5262,130,5340,1674,1842,1844,538,595],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19623"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19624,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19623\/revisions\/19624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}