Pastor Maldonado

Venezuelan racing driver

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.

Pastor Maldonado
Pastor Maldonado in Malaysia
Born (1985-03-09) 9 March 1985 (age 39)
Formula One World Championship career
NationalityVenezuelan
Entries11
Championships0
Wins1
Podiums0
Career points0
Pole positions0
Fastest laps0
First entry2011 Australian Grand Prix
Last entry2024 São Paulo Grand Prix

Career

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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.[1]

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.[2] In the European championship, he finished in eighth position, with two wins.[3] Maldonado also entered one round of the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup at Spa-Francorchamps.[4]

In 2005, Maldonado made four starts in the Italian F3000 Championship. He won one race and finish in ninth place.[5] 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.[6]

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.[7]

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.[8][9]

GP2 Series

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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.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12] As part of the deal, he also joined the team for three rounds of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season.[13] 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

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

In November 2004, Maldonado was given a test with the Minardi Formula One team.[source?] Maldonado was considered for the Campos Meta team (now Hispania Racing) in 2010.[14] 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.[15][16] Maldonado also brings sponsorship from the Venezuelan government to Williams. This is through the state-owned PDVSA oil company.[17]

Politics

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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.[18]

Racing record

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Career summary

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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

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(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

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(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

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(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.

References

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  1. "Italian Formula Renault Championship, 2003". forix.autosport.com. Haymarket.
  2. "2004 Participations". forix.autosport.com. Haymarket.
  3. "2004 European Formula Renault standings". forix.autosport.com. Haymarket.
  4. "2004 Participations". forix.autosport.com. Haymarket.
  5. "2005 F3000 Participations". forix.autosport.com. Haymarket.
  6. "2005 WSR Participations". forix.autosport.com. Haymarket.
  7. "Maldonado handed ban after crash". news.bbc.co.uk. BBC. 2005-05-25. Archived from the original on 2008-04-12. Retrieved 2011-02-18.
  8. "WSR 2006 Drivers' Championship". forix.autosport.com. Haymarket. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  9. "WSR 2006 Drivers' Championship". forix.autosport.com. Haymarket. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  10. Freeman, Glenn (2007-02-01). "Maldonado confirmed at Trident". autosport.com. Haymarket. Retrieved 2007-02-01.
  11. "Injury forces Maldonado out". crash.net. 2007-08-19. Retrieved 2007-08-19.
  12. "Maldonado to race for ART in 2009". autosport.com. 2008-11-10. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
  13. "Driver changes aplenty in Dubai". crash.net. 2008-12-04. Retrieved 2008-12-04.
  14. "Guardian Unlimited: Bruno Senna wins 2010 Formula One drive with new Campos Meta team" (NewsBank). Financial Times Information Limited. England: Guardian Newspapers Ltd. 2009-11-11. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
  15. Benson, Andrew (2010-11-15). "Williams keep Rubens Barrichello but drop Nico Hulkenberg". news.bbc.co.uk. BBC Sport. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
  16. "Q&A with Williams' Pastor Maldonado". formula1.com. Formula One Administration. 2010-12-01. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
  17. "Maldonado secures government backing". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 2010-12-09. Retrieved 2010-12-17.
  18. Ore, Diego (2010-12-17). "Venezuela F1 driver flies flag for socialist Chavez". ca.reuters.com. Reuters. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2010-12-17.

Other websites

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