Manuel Maldonado

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.

Manuel Maldonado
Maldonado in 2019
Nationality Venezuelan
Born (1999-10-05) 5 October 1999
Maracay, Venezuela
Related toPastor Maldonado (cousin)
Euroformula Open Championship career
Debut season2019
Current teamTeam Motopark
Former teamsFortec Motorsport
Starts13
Wins0
Poles0
Fastest laps0
Best finish4th in 2020
Previous series
2016
2016-18
2017-19		Italian F4 Championship
MRF Challenge
BRDC British F3 Championship

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 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.

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 Motorsport 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 Motorsport 23 2 0 0 2 292 7th
2019 BDRC British Formula 3 Championship Fortec Motorsport 24 1 0 1 5 348 6th
Euroformula Open Championship 2 0 0 0 0 0 24th
2020 Euroformula Open Championship Team Motopark 18 0 0 0 4 153 4th
2021 Asian Le Mans Series United Autosports

* Season still in progress.

References
  1. "Manuel Maldonado enters Italian F4 with Cram - Formula Scout". February 6, 2016.
  2. "Schumacher, Newey headline MRF Challenge entry list". www.motorsport.com.
  3. Wood, Elliot (November 18, 2017). "Rinus VeeKay victorious in third MRF Challenge race in Bahrain".
  4. Suttill, Josh (April 2, 2018). "Manuel Maldonado takes maiden BRDC British F3 win in crazy wet reverse-grid race".
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