Maldonado's confidence not dented despite terrible Monaco Grand Prix weekend

After giving Williams its first Formula 1 win for nearly eight years at Barcelona, Maldonado was tipped to star in Monte Carlo, where he had excelled throughout his career.

But he ended up on the back row of the grid after being penalised for both crashing into Sergio Perez's Sauber in final practice and changing his gearbox. Maldonado's race then ended in a first-lap collision with Pedro de la Rosa's HRT amid the mayhem caused by Romain Grosjean's incident at the front.

"I'm really disappointed with the weekend. It's been difficult after FP3 yesterday, but this is racing, sometimes it's good and sometimes not," Maldonado told AUTOSPORT. "I think we need to turn the page and look forward to the next race.

"I've just been talking to the engineers about the next race and trying to not do the same mistakes we made here, especially with the car and trying to improve on the technical side.

"I think we are getting more competitive, we will still be near the top, and I think there is a great confidence with the car and with my people now, and I'm looking forward to being strong again in Canada."

Maldonado added that he was now very secure in his belief in both his ability and the Williams's pace, so would not let one bad race shake him.

"I think the best thing now is that I'm very confident. I'm very confident with the car and very confident with the team, and I've gained this just by working," he said.

"I've been working so hard to become strong and now we are so close. We are not the best at the moment, we don't have the best car, but we are not that far. We are very close.

"We need to keep pushing with some particular parts of the car, and our people are pushing to improve. We have all the tools to keep improving."