Manuel Maldonado

Manuel Maldonado
Manuel Maldonado
	Maldonado in 2019
Nationality	Venezuelan
Born	5 October 1999 (age 22); Maracay, Venezuela
Related to	Pastor Maldonado (cousin)
Asian Le Mans Series career
Debut season	2021
Current team	United Autosports
Car number	23
Former teams	United Autosports
Starts	4
Wins	3
Poles	0
Fastest laps	0
Best finish	1st in 2021
Previous series
2016; 2016-18; 2017-19	Italian F4 Championship; MRF Challenge; BRDC British F3 Championship
Championship titles
2021	1

Manuel Maldonado Vargas (born 5 October 1999) is a Venezuelan racing driver currently racing in the Euroformula Open Championship for Team Motopark. He is the cousin of former Formula One driver Pastor Maldonado.

Career[]

Italian F4[]

Maldonado's first experience in single seaters was in Italian F4 in 2016.^[1] He drove alongside Leonard Hoogenboom for the Cram Motorsport team, a lackluster first year in Italian F4 saw Maldonado fail to score any points and record his best result of 12th only 7 races into a 23 race season. He finished the season 36th sandwiched between Liechtensteiner Fabienne Wohlwend and Austrian Thomas Preining. His Dutch teammate fared much better win a singular podium finish at Imola and 2 more points scoring places to gain him a total of 20 points.

MRF Challenge[]

Maldonado's first points of his career came at the 1st round of the 2016–17 MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship where he finished 9th.^[2] Another poor season took Maldonado to 14th in the table with his best 2 finishes of 8th coming at the Buddh International Circuit. Maldonado returned for the following campaign finishing in the points 7 times with his best finish of 5th coming on two occasions. Maldonado originally finished 3rd at the second race after a poor start from pole-sitter Julien Falchero allowed Maldonado to jump into 2nd place, Indonesian driver Presley Martono kept the pressure on Maldonado all race before piping him to the line after a photo finish. Maldonado was later disqualified. The next race another penalty forced Maldonado out of the points after a drive-through penalty for jumping the start, dropped him to 15th.^[3]

British F3[]

Maldonado in the paddock at the Brands Hatch round in 2019.

Maldonado with Fortec in 2019

Maldonado joined the Fortec Motorsport team for the 2017 BRDC British F3 Championship, he enjoyed an uneventful season with his best result coming at Silverstone Circuit where he finished 6th. He ended up 20 points ahead of closest rival Guilherme Samaia and 11 points behind Omar Ismail. The 2018 season was where Maldonado took his first career victory at a wet Oulton Park, still with Fortec, Maldonado started in 5th place however after the first corner he was leading the race. Despite a safety car and a red flag due to incidents behind them, the top 3 drove a close yet uneventful race which Maldonado came out on top. Maldonado shared the podium with teammate Tristan Charpentier and Douglas Motorsport driver Jamie Chadwick.^[4] Maldonado won one more race that season taking him to 7th in the standings, behind Billy Monger. A third season in the series with Fortec saw him partner American Kris Wright and Brit Johnathan Hoggard. Maldonado took 5 podiums that year as well as a singular win at Silverstone, a dominating race which saw him finish 4 seconds ahead of 2nd place Nicolás Varrone.

Euroformula Open[]

Maldonado joined the German based team Motopark for the 2020 Euroformula open championship, this has been up to date Manuel's best season in single seaters, having had 4 podiums and finishing the season in 4th place overall in the driver's standings. Manuel showed strong pace throughout the year having 2 front row starts, one coming in at Red Bull Ring, Austria and the second one at the season finale in Barcelona at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Asian Le Mans Series[]

Maldonado Joined the UK based team United Autosports for the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series, to make his endurance racing debut in car 23 an LMP3 Ligier with teammates Wayne Boy and Rory Penttinen, to make an extremely successful campaign by taking the championship. winning both races in Dubai and the last race in Abu Dhabi, the only race the squad didn't win was when they DNF from an alternator failure in race 1 in Abu Dhabi.

Racing record[]

Career summary[]

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	FLaps	Podiums	Points	Position
2016	Italian F4 Championship	Cram Motorsport	20	0	0	0	0	0	36th
2016–17	MRF Challenge Formula 2000	MRF Racing	16	0	0	0	0	20	14th
2017	BDRC British Formula 3 Championship	Fortec Motorsports	23	0	0	0	0	205	12th
2017–18	MRF Challenge Formula 2000	MRF Racing	15	0	0	0	0	39	11th
2018	BDRC British Formula 3 Championship	Fortec Motorsports	23	2	0	0	2	292	7th
2019	BDRC British Formula 3 Championship	Fortec Motorsports	24	1	0	1	5	348	6th
2019	Euroformula Open Championship	Fortec Motorsports	2	0	0	0	0	0	24th
2020	Euroformula Open Championship	Team Motopark	18	0	0	0	4	153	4th
2021	European Le Mans Series	United Autosports	5	0	0	0	1	28.5	12th
2021	Asian Le Mans Series - LMP3	United Autosports	4	3	1	1	3	78	1st

* Season still in progress.

Complete Italian F4 Championship results[]

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

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	Pos	Points
2016	Cram Motorsport	MIS 1	MIS 2 21	MIS 3 20	MIS 4 DNQ	ADR 1 18	ADR 2	ADR 3 12	ADR 4 21	IMO1 1 23	IMO1 2 28	IMO1 3 24	MUG 1 27	MUG 2 19	MUG 3 24	VLL 1 Ret	VLL 2 Ret	VLL 3 23	IMO2 1 13	IMO2 2 16	IMO2 3 18	MNZ 1 16	MNZ 2 21	MNZ 3 17	36th	0

Complete Euroformula Open Championship results[]

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

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	Pos	Points
2019	Fortec Motorsports	LEC 1	LEC 2	PAU 1	PAU 2	HOC 1	HOC 2	SPA 1	SPA 2	HUN 1	HUN 2	RBR 1	RBR 2	SIL 1 12	SIL 2 11	CAT 1 WD	CAT 2 WD	MNZ 1	MNZ 2	24th	0
2020	Team Motopark	HUN 1 5	HUN 2 6	LEC 1 7	LEC 2 14	RBR 1 2	RBR 2 2	MNZ 1 4	MNZ 2 Ret	MNZ 3 10	MUG 1 11	MUG 2 6	SPA 1 6	SPA 2 12	SPA 3 2	CAT 1 5	CAT 2 4	CAT 3 7	CAT 4 2	4th	153