F1 2015 Head-to-Head: Pastor Maldonado vs. Romain Grosjean at Lotus
Last year was a disastrous one for Lotus.
After ending 2013 with the second-fastest car in the field, which allowed Romain Grosjean to emerge as the main challenger to Sebastian Vettel in the midst of the German's record nine-race winning streak, the team effectively crumbled.
Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus' lead driver since 2012, fled to join James Allison—their recently departed technical director—at Ferrari, having exposed the true extent of the outfit's financial problems.
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Also through the exit door went Eric Boullier—the man who had steadied the ship in 2010 when the team, then known as Renault, were on their knees following the Crashgate revelations and returned them to grand prix-winning status—who found new employment at McLaren.
Despite the retention of talented personnel such as Grosjean, new Technical Director Nick Chester and Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane, the flesh had very much been peeled from the bones of Lotus over the winter of 2013/14, which left the team unprepared ahead of the sport's season of change.
The result?
Lotus' twin-tusk E22 was the only car that failed to appear at the all-important Jerez pre-season test last January, which forced the team to play catch-up in a chase they were never going to win in terms of both pace and reliability.
Among the biggest disappointments of the team's 2014 campaign—which saw the E22 score points on just three occasions as Lotus finished eighth in the constructors' standings—was the fact that we were denied a worthwhile interteam battle between Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado, Raikkonen's replacement.
Previously rivals in GP2, their careers stalled last year as a direct consequence of the team's fall from competitiveness.
However, Lotus' capture of a Mercedes power unit for 2015 and the introduction of an all-new chassis—Maldonado told Autosport's Ben Anderson and Andrew van Leeuwen that the 2015 car is "a big revolution" and "completely different" from the E22—should reinvigorate the Enstone-based team and therefore make the Grosjean-Maldonado battle far more meaningful.
As the established figure within the team, if not their biggest asset, Grosjean should be in a prime position to convert his superiority over Maldonado on a grander stage in 2015.
Despite the focus surrounding the struggles of Vettel and Raikkonen in 2014, the Frenchman was arguably the biggest loser of the huge regulation changes, having been denied the opportunity to build upon his strong end to the previous season.
Such is the fast-moving nature of Formula One that Grosjean's year in the midfield saw his stock fall dramatically as the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, the only non-Mercedes driver to win a grand prix, and the consistent Valtteri Bottas became the sport's latest golden boys.
And although Grosjean scored eight of Lotus' 10 points in 2014—and somehow managed to drag the car to fifth on the grid in Spain—the feeling that his career was in danger of being wasted shone through all too often.
Team radio messages in which he was heard berating the car, the Renault powertrain and the team's struggles to resolve their problems became the soundbite of his season, while scenes of arm waving and storming from the garage served as accurate snapshots.
Yet despite trying to navigate his way out of the team—the 28-year-old told Sky Sports' James Galloway last July of his openness to leaving Lotus, and his stay was not confirmed until it became clear he was not in contention for the vacant seats at Ferrari and McLaren—the changes at Enstone should be a source of optimism in 2015.
And with that optimism should come a renewed sense of focus and satisfaction as Grosjean seeks to make up for lost time.
For Maldonado, making up for lost time should be secondary to rebooting his entire approach.
Although the Venezuelan ended last year with two points—one point more than his first and final seasons with Williams in 2011 and 2013—it was the worst season of his F1 career from a performance perspective by some margin.
In a year defined by two embarrassing clangers in the space of a couple of hours at the Chinese Grand Prix—he spun while fiddling with a steering wheel switch in FP1 before crashing in the pit lane in FP2—that Maldonado only scored points once Marussia and Caterham were sidelined with financial problems said it all.
After burning his bridges with Williams in 2013, hinting to Sky Sports' Mike Wise that the team had sabotaged his car at the United States GP, Maldonado has so far failed to endear himself to Lotus, with F1 journalist Peter Windsor claiming as long ago as mid-2014 that the Venezuelan was unpopular within his new environment.
It is often claimed in motorsport that a driver's team-mate is his closest rival, as the man on the other side of the garage has access to identical machinery, but Maldonado would be well advised to view Grosjean not as a direct opponent but as a blueprint.
The two Lotus drivers, after all, are—or were—cut from the same cloth in terms of technique, as both are flamboyant, fast and reliant on their car control.
Although it is a driving style that can pay dividends on occasion, it also carries various pitfalls. Grosjean found that out the hard way in 2012 when he was handed a one-race ban after causing a number of first-lap incidents.
That punishment was arguably the catalyst for change, and the Frenchman, after a few more offs upon his return to action, came back for 2013 with more finesse behind the wheel.
Although he went under the radar for the first half of '13 as he adjusted to his new on-track application, Grosjean soon reaped the rewards to the point that he was widely heralded as a potential future world champion.
That is what Maldonado should hope to emulate this year and, in many ways, is what Lotus as a collective unit should focus on doing in 2015.
After the annus horribilis that was 2014, the team—following the changes behind the scenes—have a strong chance of mounting a rapid resurgence and returning to the top five of the constructors' standings.
For Grosjean, it may become clear that the grass isn't greener elsewhere, while it will be better late than never for Maldonado, who finally gets the chance to show what he can do with a Mercedes engine after happily walking away from Williams.
As far as all at Lotus are concerned, 2015 is about restoring reputations and reminding F1 what it missed out on last year.
You would expect Grosjean to be far more capable of doing that than Maldonado.
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