Defiant Maldonado insists there is no extra pressure

The Lotus driver has failed to score any points this season, and his disappointing form has prompted talk that his place at the Enstone-based team could be under threat.

But speaking ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, a race he won in 2012, Maldonado said he did not feel there was any greater need to deliver right now.

"There is always pressure in F1," he said. "I think on my side, I cannot live without any pressure. It is part of an F1 driver life.

"It was not the greatest beginning of the season for me and the team, even if we have the potential.

"For many reasons we have not been able to complete the results, but on the other hand we have a good car which permits us to recover if the weekend is going to be clean.

"Hopefully we can, from this point, be in points consistently and look forward to not only race points, because we have to fight for something more than a few points.

"There is no extra pressure, there is standard pressure we always have."

Maldonado has admitted, however, that the three-week break since the Bahrain GP has been valuable in allowing him and his team to reset their situation.

"I've been in the factory working and trying to improve and test different things in the simulator," he said. "I wanted to try to learn better and understand better the car from the previous races.

"For sure from the team point of view it was good to have some break and reset a little bit, and restart having more experience with the car, and more experience with the team itself. For sure it is good."