Pastor Maldonado Quotations

Having competed themselves, my father and my uncle are very passionate about motorsport, so I inherited it from them.

After karting in Venezuela, I came to Europe in 1998 to compete in international kart races, which was great for me to get experience racing outside my country. After consistently being at the top, I decided to move to Italian Formula Renault.

In my city of Maracay, there is a go kart circuit about five minutes from my home. When I was about three or four years old, I said I wanted to race, but I was too young; then, when I reached the age of seven, my father gave me a kart and we started from there.

I'm used to having a lot of criticism. It's normal. It's normal when you come from South America, when you have a country pushing very hard in your back.

Williams really does feel like a family, and I have built up very good relationships with people here; in fact, some of my best friends work for Williams. A friendly atmosphere can really help on the track as well because I feel like I can communicate freely with the team.

We live in a free world, so everyone can say whatever.

Williams is one of the big names in F1 with a really strong pedigree, so it is an honour to be driving for them.

That was a frustrating race for me. I pushed as hard as possible at the start on the medium tyres whilst everyone around me was on the grippier soft compound rubber. Once I moved to the soft tyres I was able to set the race's then fastest lap so things looked good with our strategy. Unfortunately the engine anti-kill triggered when I came in to make my final pit stop which cost me a lot of time. It's frustrating as we should have finished strongly. My focus is now Barcelona where I've delivered very strongly in the past.

I think in my car somebody is playing with the pressure and the temperatures,

You can always improve your fitness if you keep training.