Pastor Maldonado

Pastor Maldonado

Pastor Maldonado in Malaysia
Born	(1985-03-09) 9 March 1985
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Venezuelan
Entries	11
Championships	0
Wins	1
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2011 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry	2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta (born March 9, 1985 in Maracay) is a Venezuelan racing driver. His career so far has been in single-seater Formula racing. He is the 2010 GP2 Champion, and a former champion of Italian Formula Renault. He is currently a driver for the Williams Formula One team. His first F1 race was the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.

Career

2003

Maldonado started formula racing in Italy in 2003. He competed in the Italian Formula Renault Championship. He had three podium finishes and one pole position.

2004

In 2004, Maldonado ran in both the Italian and European Formula Renault series. He won the Italian championship He had eight wins and six pole positions. In the European championship, he finished in eighth position, with two wins. Maldonado also entered one round of the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup at Spa-Francorchamps.

2005

In 2005, Maldonado made four starts in the Italian F3000 Championship. He won one race and finish in ninth place. He also entered nine races (and made seven starts) in the Spanish-based World Series by Renault (WSR). Maldonado only started seven of the races, and his best finish was seventh place.

Maldonado received a four-race ban in the WSR for dangerous driving. He did not slow down at the scene of an accident at Monaco. There were warning flags displayed. He hit and seriously injured a marshal.

2006

Maldonado received a full-time drive in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Draco Racing in 2006. He was finished in third place. He won three race and finished on the podium six other times. Maldonado had five pole positions.

GP2 Series

Maldonado driving for ART Grand Prix at the Turkish round of the 2009 GP2 Series season.

Maldonado signed a contract to drive in GP2 for Trident Racing in 2007. He first win came in his fourth race in the series at Monaco. He missed the final four rounds of the season after breaking a collarbone during training. He finished the season outside the top 10. He has moved to the Piquet Sports team for the 2008 season. He finished in fifth place in the drivers' championship.

Maldonado signed to drive for the ART Grand Prix team for the 2009 season. As part of the deal, he also joined the team for three rounds of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season. He finished sixth overall, helping ART to the teams title.

Maldonado drove for the Rapax Team in the 2010 season. He won the Championship that year.

Formula One

Maldonado during pre-season testing at Jerez in February 2011.

In November 2004, Maldonado was given a test with the Minardi Formula One team. Maldonado was considered for the Campos Meta team (now Hispania Racing) in 2010. Karun Chandhok got the drive with HRT.

After Williams said that Nico Hülkenberg had been dropped from the team's 2011 line-up, Maldonado was announced as his replacement on December 1. Maldonado also brings sponsorship from the Venezuelan government to Williams. This is through the state-owned PDVSA oil company.

Politics

Maldonado has strong feelings about politics and talks about them openly. This is not very common in the racing world. He says he is a socialist and a friend of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2007	GP2 Series	Trident Racing	12	1	1	0	2	25	11th
2008	GP2 Series	Piquet Sports	20	1	2	4	6	60	5th
2008-09	GP2 Asia Series	ART Grand Prix	5	0	0	0	1	7	15th
2009	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	19	2	0	0	2	36	6th
2010	GP2 Series	Rapax Team	19	6	0	5	8	87	1st
2011	Formula One	AT&T Williams	11	0	0	0	0	0*	21st*

^* Season in progress.

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2007	Trident Racing	BHR FEA DNS	BHR SPR 16	CAT FEA Ret	CAT SPR 17	MON FEA 1	MAG FEA 10	MAG SPR 8	SIL FEA 7	SIL SPR 2	HOC FEA 6	HOC SPR 4	HUN FEA Ret	HUN SPR Ret	IST FEA	IST SPR	MNZ FEA	MNZ SPR	SPA FEA	SPA SPR	VAL FEA	VAL SPR	11th	25
2008	Piquet Sports	CAT FEA 12	CAT SPR Ret	IST FEA Ret	IST SPR Ret	MON FEA 2	MON SPR Ret	MAG FEA 3	MAG SPR 7	SIL FEA Ret	SIL SPR 15	HOC FEA 6	HOC SPR 17	HUN FEA 5	HUN SPR 18	VAL FEA 2	VAL SPR Ret	SPA FEA 3	SPA SPR 1	MNZ FEA 2	MNZ SPR 4		5th	60
2009	ART Grand Prix	CAT FEA 5	CAT SPR 6	MON FEA 8	MON SPR 1	IST FEA 6	IST SPR 5	SIL FEA 7	SIL SPR 1	NÜR FEA Ret	NÜR SPR 9	HUN FEA 4	HUN SPR Ret	VAL FEA DSQ	VAL SPR 8	SPA FEA 4	SPA SPR Ret	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR 15	ALG FEA 11	ALG SPR 20		6th	36
2010	Rapax Team	CAT FEA 6	CAT SPR 3	MON FEA 2	MON SPR 11	IST FEA 1	IST SPR 6	VAL FEA 1	VAL SPR 4	SIL FEA 1	SIL SPR 4	HOC FEA 1	HOC SPR 20	HUN FEA 1	HUN SPR DSQ	SPA FEA 1	SPA SPR Ret	MNZ FEA Ret	MNZ SPR Ret	YMC FEA 17	YMC SPR 9		1st	87

Complete GP2 Asia Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	DC	Points
2008–09	ART Grand Prix	CHN FEA	CHN SPR	ABU FEA Ret	ABU SPR C	BHR1 FEA	BHR1 SPR	QAT FEA	QAT SPR	MYS FEA 7	MYS SPR 2	BHR2 FEA Ret	BHR2 SPR Ret	15th	7

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	WDC	Points
2011	AT&T Williams	Williams FW33	Cosworth CA2011 2.4 L V8	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	CHN 18	TUR 17	ESP 15	MON 18†	CAN Ret	EUR 18	GBR 14	GER 14	HUN 16	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	KOR	IND	ABU	BRA		21st*	0*

^* Season in progress.
^† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix. Driver was classified (ranked) because they finished over 90% of the race.

Other websites

• Official site Archived 2010-11-03 at the Wayback Machine
• Pastor Maldonado in Twitter