The Venezuelan has earned a reputation for being too aggressive and crashing often in F1, but he reckons things just get blown out of proportion every time he is involved in an accident.

"When I make a mistake, even by myself without touching anyone, everybody is surprised and this is the news of the day," said Maldonado.

"All the other drivers crash, all the other drivers have incidents and nothing happens. Look at Bottas and Kimi, twice, and it's a simple racing incident. I have a stupid contact and everybody goes 'Agghh...'"

Maldonado reckons his reputation means he is usually given harsher penalties than other drivers.

"It's very difficult for the stewards because they are always different. So it's very difficult to value the same in different races," he added.

"It's not that they don't like me or not. I know all of them and they are just doing their jobs. But sometimes they have different views than the other races.

"I've seen so many incidents during the year and maybe they weren't that hard with their decisions.

"Sometimes with me they are a bit harder. It's part of the game. It's the same in football."