Biography

In 2000, aged just 15, he made his single-seater debut, contesting the Formula Renault Winter Series which he won. However, it wasn't until 2003 that his career began in earnest, contesting the Italian Formula Renault 2.0 Series in which he finished seventh overall.

He remained in the Italian Formula Renault 2.0 Series the following year, this time securing the title, while also finding time to contest the European Formula Renault V.6 Series and one round of the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup. In November that year Pastor also got his first taste of F1, driving a Minardi at Misano under the watching eye of team founder Giancarlo Minardi.

In 2005 he contested four rounds of the Italian F3000 championship and a number of rounds of the World Series by Renault. Indeed, it was following an incident during the Monaco round of the WSR championship that he was handed a four-race ban for dangerous driving having failed to slow down at the scene of an accident and subsequently hitting and seriously injuring a marshal.

Putting the nightmare of 2005 behind him, for 2006 Pastor secured a full-time drive with Draco, finishing the season third overall, courtesy of 3 wins, 6 podiums and 5 poles.

In 2007, Pastor made the obvious move up to GP2 however, it was several more years before he was able to claim the title. In his debut season he took victory in only his fourth race (Monaco). However, he was forced to miss the final four rounds of the season after breaking his collarbone while training.

In 2008 he joined Piquet Sports finishing 5th overall in a season in which in addition to taking another win (Spa) he gave a farcical performance at Silverstone when he stalled on the dummy grid, picked up a penalty for speeding in the pitlane as he joined the race, another penalty for passing under yellow flags, and then crashing into Adrian Valles and Kamui Kobayashi on the final lap.

For 2009 he joined the highly successful ART Grand Prix team alongside rising star Nico Hulkenberg. Pastor was totally overshadowed by the young German who went on to win the title, however, 2 wins were enough to help the Venezuelan secure sixth in the standings and help ART take the team title.

In 2010, Pastor moved to Rapax where he was partnered by Luiz Razia. In his fourth attempt at the title, the Venezuelan made it stick, posting six wins and scoring 87 points. However, despite some strong performances in the early part of the season, he appeared to run out of steam in the latter stages, despite taking the title at Monza with one round remaining.

In December 2010, Pastor was confirmed as Rubens Barrichello's teammate at Williams for 2011. Ironically, he replaced the man who totally overshadowed him in GP2 in 2009, Nico Hulkenberg.

Explaining the decision to sign Pastor - and drop Hulkenberg - Williams chairman Adam Parr insisted that the Venezuelan got the drive totally on merit. Many remained sceptical and the announcement, just a few weeks later, that the team had secured a major deal with the state oil company PDVSA did little to help.

We said at the time that despite some strong performances on the way up, Pastor had failed to convince and that it would be interesting to see how he shaped up over the course of the season. As it happens, even after nineteen races we remain as unconvinced as we were before.

Of course, things are not helped by the fact that the FW33 was such a pig of a car, lacking in pace and reliability. While in some areas it was quite innovative, the team devoting much of its resources to its low-line gearbox, it lagged behind in terms of the blown diffuser.

In Australia he retired with a transmission problem while two weeks later in Malaysia he crashed into the tyre wall during the second free practice session. Indeed, there were far too many 'incidents' over the course of the year, too many times when his Latin temperament clearly got the better of him.

While it wasn't until Spain that he finally made it into Q2, he generally gave a good account of himself, out-qualifying his highly experienced teammate nine times and being the only Williams driver to make it through to Q3, which he did three times.

While some might see Belgium - where he scored his sole point of the season - as the highlight, let's not forget the two needless clashes with Hamilton, justifiably earning the Venezuelan a grid penalty for the subsequent race. Then again, the youngster was probably still miffed at the clash in Monaco which robbed him of an almost certain sixth place and resulted in Hamilton's trip to the stewards and the infamous 'is it because I is black' remark.

Over the course of the remaining races, Pastor did not score any more points nor did he reach Q3. Indeed, his frustration was compounded in Abu Dhabi; where he qualified 17th and started 23rd (after a 10-place grid penalty for using a 9th engine), served a drive-through, and later a 30-second time penalty after the race, both for ignoring blue flags.

Nonetheless, on 1 December 2011, the Venezuelan was confirmed for a second season, in the eyes of most a move borne out of economics as opposed to racing ambition. On the other hand, Pastor had his moments. He clearly has pace, he also has aggression - sometimes too much - however, there was also that nagging doubt regarding his commitment.

While there is still much going on behind the scenes at Grove, if he is to remain in F1 beyond 2012 he will need to raise his own game and rely a little less on the doors the Venezuelan state oil company might open for him.

Statistics - at the end of 2011 Season

Drivers' Titles: 0
Seasons in F1: 1
Grand Prix: 19
Wins: 0
Poles: 0
Fastest Laps: 0

Best result in 2011: 10th (Belgium)
Best qualifying 2011: 7th (Britain)
Worst qualifying 2011: 18th (2 times)

2011: Out-qualified Rubens Barrichello 9 times
2011: Out-qualified by Rubens Barrichello 10 times

2011: Completed 893 out of 1133 laps (78.8%)
2011: Finished 13 times from 19 starts (68%)