Pastor Maldonado is frustrated with the way people react differently to crashes or mistakes involving him compared to another driver.

In Abu Dhabi Maldonado complained it would have been "big news" if roles had been reversed in his Turn 1 collision with Fernando Alonso, which saw the McLaren driver spear him off the track. Maldonado's erratic driving since his debut in 2011 has earned an unenviable reputation in F1 and has even spawned a popular website documenting the precise time since his last crash.

Maldonado, who is set to drive for the Renault team next year after it confirmed its buyout of Lotus, thinks he gets unfair attention when he is involved in an accident and points to the reaction to the collisions between Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas in Russia and Mexico to highlight his point.

"It is a difficult one," Maldonado said. "On the track it is always a competition and I always want to gain places or to defend. It is a part of the game, especially when we are fighting closely for position. Fighting with some drivers is easier than some other ones. I try to be competitive and hard on the track ... there are some drivers that are hard on the track, like Fernando, and when you fight with him he is very hard.

"We are all here for the same objective. When I do a mistake without touching anyone, everybody is surprised and this is the news of the day. Other drivers crash and have incidents, nothing happens. Look at Bottas and Kimi -- two times, but now all quiet and normal. Simple race incident. I have a stupid contact, everyone is 'argh'."

Maldonado thinks his reputation spills over to influence the race stewards at every grand prix and has a negative impact on the penalties he receives.

"They have different views at different races. I saw during the year so many crashes and incidents against two different drivers and they were maybe not that hard on the decisions. Sometimes with me they are a bit harder, but it is part of the game."