Pastor Maldonado vows to make up for points lost in mid-season F1 races

The Williams driver has not scored a point since his victory in the Spanish Grand Prix in May. He has only banked four points, for eighth place in China, on top of the 25 he claimed for that win despite several outstanding qualifying performances.

He vowed to convert his prodigious pace into more top 10 finishes in the second half of the year.

"There are still nine races to go, which is quite a lot, so we have time to recover," the Venezuelan told AUTOSPORT. "I will do my best in the second half of the season to recover the loss and will never back off.

"We need more points and we need to improve and learn from the mistakes. Every time I go on track, I try to learn and constantly improve. That is my approach.

"For [various] reasons, we didn't get any points after Barcelona. But this is racing. Qualifying has been good."

Maldonado has been the subject of criticism this season. He has been punished by race stewards three times in the last four races for clashes with Lewis Hamilton (Valencia), Sergio Perez (Silverstone) and Paul di Resta (Hungaroring) but insists that he isn't being distracted by such comments.

He emphasises that he has not let his focus waver in the face of criticism, or after the praise that he deservedly received after his win in Spain.

"I was not looking for [good] comments from people on that," he said of how that win changed the way he was perceived. I had full focus on my job trying to push the team forward.

"When you do well, you have everyone on your back in a good way and when you do badly you have everyone on your back in a bad way."

*For an in-depth analysis of Maldonado's season, with input from both key players in the team and the man himself, check out this week's AUTOSPORT magazine, out now.