A year after winning in Barcelona from pole, Pastor Maldonado has hit rock bottom at the scene of his F1 breakthrough.
For many in the paddock, the depth of Williams’ and Maldonado’s decline in just 12 months is hard to believe — on Saturday, both FW35s failed to make it out of Q1, and the Venezuelan was outqualified by his rookie teammate Valtteri Bottas.
With new improvements to the struggling car on board this weekend, Maldonado told EFE news agency that "nothing worked" as his team tried to improve his car through the weekend.
"Nothing worked at all," he said again, "but we have to keep calm and keep going.
"We cannot give up," the 28-year-old added.
"We must keep going to find a solution. At the moment we have no idea how to fix our problems, which seems incredible, but this is formula one."