Pastor Maldonado shrugs off Rubens Barrichello's criticism

Barrichello was dropped by Williams after two seasons at the end of 2011 despite being keen to continue and recently completed his maiden campaign in IndyCar.

But Maldonado believes that the team is stronger now than when Barrichello raced there despite recognising the positive influence that the Brazilian's experience had.

"He can say whatever he wants," said Maldonado when AUTOSPORT put Barrichello's comments to him. "He was in the team for two years and it was even worse.

"I learned a lot from him because of his experience. He was so professional, very competitive and pushing very hard and he was the most experienced guy in F1.

"But in terms of potential [of what he could have achieved in the car], it's difficult to say.

"It's easy to say 'I'm going to win all of the races' but you can never say that. I respect his point of view, but we'll see."

Maldonado added that he is happy with his own performance, particularly in terms of pace.

He believes that bad luck has played a big part in his failure to score a point since winning the Spanish Grand Prix in May and is confident that the team is still moving in the right direction.

"I'm doing quite well, especially on speed performance," said Maldonado.

"We had some problems in the races, maybe [because of] the experience, but it was not only because of the experience.

"We had a lot of bad luck this year, not only with problems with the car but with the stewards.

"There is a great atmosphere now in the team and we are getting better and better all the time."