Q & A: Maldonado on his Williams test

AUTOSPORT heard from the GP2 champion afterwards on his first impressions of the legendary team and his chances of securing the ex-Nico Hulkenberg race seat.

Q. How does the Williams compare to the HRT?

Pastor Maldonado: It's a big difference. I think that the most important thing is that I tried two different cars, so it's more experience for me and I'm more confident now with the car. Always when I went on the track, I improved. I had a very good day so I'm happy.

Q. You did a total of 190 laps - is it exactly what you expected it to be?

PM: I'm very happy because I adapted myself very quickly to the car from the start of yesterday. I maybe expected a little bit less power from the engine, but it's fantastic. The difference is quite big from GP2, but I think that all of the junior drivers are doing a very good job. As you saw the times were quite quick.

Q. Has what you have done today improved your chances of a race seat?

PM: I don't know. I did my job. I think that we improved together and increased our speed run by run. The team this morning concentrated on trying some aero set-ups. It was great for me, because I never did that before so it's good experience that in the future I'm going to use again.

Q. You were impressed yesterday by the level of downforce on the HRT. How much more impressed are you today?

PM: They are different cars, but two professional teams. The Williams has much downforce so it's quicker in the corners and on the brakes, but with the same engine so the power is not so different.

Q. How did you find the team to work with?

PM: It's completely different from GP2 because in GP2 we don't have any time to do anything! We have just half an hour to test, half an hour to qualify and just three sets of new tyres for the whole weekend.

And here you can improve yourself because you have a team working for you, a complete day, many sets of new tyres so the drivers can improve quite a lot during the day. I'm happy because working with a team is a bit different between GP2 and here and I'm doing very good, to be honest. I feel good.

The most important thing is to learn the tyres because it's going to be a very big change. I used Bridgestone in GP2 too so it's going to be a big change. We'll see what happens with these tyres and if the set-up of the car changes a lot.

Q. Did you find the job easier or more difficult today?

PM: It's always difficult. All of the cars are difficult to drive when you are on the limit.

Q. When will you know about next year?

PM: As soon as possible. We are pushing.