Karting Maldonado was invited to Kartódromo Carmencita Hernández in 1992 and was impressed with the karts that were running on the track. After that, he convinced his father to let him drive one.
Cram Competition also entered one round of the
German Formula Renault Championship at
Oschersleben. In 2004, Maldonado ran a dual programme in Italian and
Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup with
Cram Competition. He won the Italian title, with eight wins and six pole positions from seventeen starts. In the European championship, he was classified eighth overall, with two wins. Maldonado also found the time to enter one round of the now defunct
Formula Renault V6 Eurocup at
Spa-Francorchamps, with a best finish of fifth place. In November 2004, Maldonado was given an opportunity to test with the
Minardi Formula One team at
Misano in Italy. The team's former owner,
Giancarlo Minardi, was present at the test and commented positively about Maldonado's performance.
Italian F3000 In 2005, Maldonado progressed out of Formula Renault, but did not get the opportunity to complete a full season in any one series. He made four starts in the
Italian F3000 Championship with Sighinolfi Auto Racing, in which one race win at the
Autodromo dell'Umbria was enough to finish ninth overall. He also entered nine races (and made seven starts) in the
Spanish-based
World Series by Renault, with a best finish of seventh. However, his participation in the WSR was marred by a four-race ban for dangerous driving. He failed to slow down at the scene of an accident at
Monaco, despite the presence of warning flags, and struck and seriously injured a marshal.
Formula Renault 3.5 Maldonado secured a full-time drive in the
Formula Renault 3.5 Series with
Draco Racing in
2006. He was classified third overall, with three race wins, six further podium finishes, and five pole positions. In a season that was marked by controversy, Maldonado could have won the title were it not for a disqualification from first place at
Misano for a technical infringement.
Draco Racing lodged an appeal and the results of the championship remained provisional until Italy's
National Court of Appeal for Motorsport upheld the stewards' decision at a hearing in January 2007. The lost fifteen points would have been enough to move him up from third to first in the standings, ahead of
Alx Danielsson and
Borja García.
GP2 Series Maldonado's performances in FR3.5 were enough to attract the interest of
GP2 teams, and he signed a contract to drive for
Trident Racing in 2007 after a successful test in late 2006. He took his first victory in only his fourth race in the series with a commanding win at Monaco. However, he had to miss the final four rounds of the season after breaking a
collarbone during training, leaving him outside the championship top-ten. Maldonado moved to the
Piquet Sports team for 2008, his second year in the series. At midseason, he had two poles and two podiums. He had a farcical sprint race in the wet at
Silverstone – he stalled on the dummy grid, picked up a penalty for speeding in the pitlane as he joined the race, another penalty for passing under yellow flags, and crashed into
Adrián Vallés and
Kamui Kobayashi on the final lap. He started at the back of the grid for the Hungary feature race, but he moved up to finish fifth after staying out for longer than any other driver, and setting a succession of quick laps on these worn tyres. Four podium finishes—including a win at
Spa—in the final six races saw him rise to fifth place in the drivers' championship by the end of the season. at the
Turkish round of the
2009 GP2 Series season Maldonado signed to drive for the
ART Grand Prix team during the
2009 season. As part of the deal, he also joined the team for three rounds of the
2008–09 GP2 Asia Series. Maldonado was often overshadowed by team-mate and 2009 champion
Nico Hülkenberg, but Maldonado still finished sixth overall, helping ART to the teams title. He competed in the first round of the
2009 Euroseries 3000 season at the
Autódromo Internacional do Algarve for
Teamcraft Motorsport to gain experience of the track for the
GP2 season finale. Maldonado won the first race, having started from second position. Maldonado drove for the
Rapax Team in the
2010 GP2 Series alongside
Luiz Razia. He clinched the Championship in the penultimate event at
Monza, Maldonado won six consecutive feature races on his way to winning the title (from
Istanbul Park to
Spa), which also took him to a total of ten race victories in GP2, which is a series record. Maldonado finished sixteen points ahead of
Barwa Addax's
Sergio Pérez. Rapax also won the Teams' Championship, five points ahead of Barwa Addax.
Formula One Maldonado was a target for a
Campos Meta seat in . Campos team principal
Adrián Campos said that
Bruno Senna's team mate could be
Pedro de la Rosa,
Vitaly Petrov or Maldonado, but the team's financial problems and change of ownership changed the situation, and
Karun Chandhok got the drive. It was then reported that Maldonado was close to signing a deal to be test and reserve driver for the
Stefan Grand Prix team, which attempted to compete in the 2010 season following the withdrawal of the
US F1 Team, which left a theoretical space for another new team. Stefan was barred from competing in the 2010 season.
Williams (2011–2013) Towards the end of the 2010 season, Maldonado was linked to the
Williams team for , replacing former GP2 team-mate
Nico Hülkenberg alongside
Rubens Barrichello. He took part in the end-of-season young driver test at the
Yas Marina Circuit in
Abu Dhabi, driving for Williams and
Hispania Racing, the rebranded Campos team. On 15 November, Williams confirmed that Hülkenberg had been dropped from the team's 2011 line-up, and Maldonado was duly announced as his replacement on 1 December. In addition to his on-track record, Maldonado also brought sponsorship from the Venezuelan government (through the state-owned
PDVSA oil company) to the team.
2011 at the Maldonado retired from his first race, the , due to transmission problems. In the , he failed to reach Q2 in qualifying and again dropped out of the race. He recorded his first finish in
China, in eighteenth place. At the he reached Q3 for the first time, eventually qualifying in ninth position for the race. He made it into Q3 again in Monaco, qualifying eighth, and in the race was lying sixth with five laps remaining, when he collided with
Lewis Hamilton, taking him out of the race. He then spun out of a very wet race in
Canada. He then continued to have impressive qualifying pace with poor race pace at
Britain,
Germany, and
Hungary, including a drive-through penalty at the latter for speeding in the pit lane. At the at Spa in qualifying, Maldonado was involved in an incident with
Lewis Hamilton on an in-lap after Hamilton squeezed by him when both were on a hot lap. Maldonado appeared to swipe across Hamilton as they headed down to Eau Rouge. Maldonado received a five-place grid penalty for his actions and Hamilton a reprimand. But in the race he scored his first point in Formula One with a tenth-place finish. Maldonado did not score any more points for the rest of the season, nor did he reach Q3 for the rest of the season. His poor end to the season was magnified in
Abu Dhabi; where he qualified 17th and started 23rd (after a ten-place grid penalty for using a ninth engine), and served a drive-through, and later a 30-second time penalty after the race, both for ignoring blue flags. Maldonado finished nineteenth in the Drivers' Championship and on 1 December 2011, it was confirmed that he would be retained by
Williams for the season.
2012 Maldonado began the season alongside Brazil's
Bruno Senna, for
Williams. He started the season with promising pace, qualifying eighth for the . In the race, he was running strongly until he crashed out on the final lap, fighting with
Fernando Alonso for fifth position. In the , Maldonado retired in the closing stages of the race while running in the points. He scored his first points of the season by finishing eighth in
China. A puncture ended his race in
Bahrain, after he qualified in seventeenth position. At the , Maldonado qualified second, next to
Lewis Hamilton on the front row of the grid after strong pace from his
Williams car during the race weekend. Maldonado was later promoted to his first pole position in his Formula One career after Hamilton was excluded from the results of qualifying, due to having insufficient fuel in his car. Maldonado was beaten to the first corner by
Fernando Alonso, but regained the lead after the second round of pit stops. Maldonado held his lead after the third pit-stop phase, and held off Alonso and
Kimi Räikkönen to win, becoming the first Venezuelan driver to finish on a Grand Prix podium in the process. He remains the most recent Williams driver to win a race . During post-race celebrations, a fire engulfed the Williams pit, and Maldonado was seen carrying his cousin to safety. At
Monaco, he received a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable collision with
Sergio Pérez during a practice session (which subsequently may have led to Pérez's crash in qualifying, which caused the session to be red-flagged) and an additional five-place penalty for a gearbox change, meaning he started 24th and last on the grid. He retired due to an accident at the start of the race, when he ran into the back of
Pedro de la Rosa's
HRT who also retired with rear wing damage. At the end of second qualifying session in
Canada, Maldonado crashed into the infamous
Wall of Champions at the end of the lap in which he set the quickest sector 1 time, and was on course to bump
Jenson Button out of Q3. Maldonado finished the qualifying session 17th and started the race from 22nd position after a five-place grid penalty after he was forced to change his gearbox due to damage suffered in the crash. Maldonado made good progress in the first stint, running as high as tenth mid-race, however after his pitstop he dropped back to seventeenth and finished the race in thirteenth place. In
Europe, Maldonado qualified third but dropped to fifth after the start and tenth after pitting under a safety car halfway through the race. Maldonado then passed several drivers including
Red Bull's
Mark Webber and was running fourth in the closing stages of the race. On lap 56 (the penultimate lap of the race), Maldonado was battling with
McLaren's
Lewis Hamilton for third place, however Hamilton forced Maldonado off the track at turn 12 and Maldonado returned to track and collided with Hamilton in turn 13, with Maldonado losing steering on the high curbs. Maldonado was able to continue and finished tenth with a broken front wing; Hamilton retired after he crashed into the tyre wall. Maldonado blamed Hamilton for the incident, however the stewards gave Maldonado a 20-second time penalty which dropped Maldonado out of the points to twelfth position. Maldonado qualified seventh in
the British Grand Prix and ran as high as sixth before a pit-stop on lap 11 which dropped him into the midfield. Maldonado was subsequently involved in a collision with
Sergio Pérez, which dropped him to last while Pérez retired on the spot. Maldonado eventually finished sixteenth, a lap down on winner
Mark Webber. In television interviews, Pérez was damning of Maldonado's driving, calling him too dangerous and claiming he ruined other people's races. Pérez also called for the stewards to take tough action against Maldonado. Maldonado said the collision was a racing incident. The stewards penalised Maldonado by a reprimand and a fine of
€10,000 with two penalties given due to the "serious nature" of the incident. In
Germany, Maldonado qualified a strong sixth in the wet qualifying, however he lost pace from lap 12 of the race when he hit debris which damaged his car, and finished the race in fifteenth. In
Hungary, Maldonado qualified eighth, but a poor start dropped him to twelfth after lap one and thirteenth after the pitstops. Maldonado received a drive-through penalty for "causing an avoidable collision" in an overtaking move on
Force India's
Paul di Resta for twelfth; he dropped behind di Resta after the penalty and finished thirteenth. Maldonado was eleventh in the World Championship on 29 points as Formula One entered a five-week summer break, with his only points finishes coming from his win in Spain and eighth in China. . At the Maldonado received a further three penalties. He was demoted from third on the grid to sixth for impeding
Nico Hülkenberg in Q1. He then jumped the start of the race, and was deemed to cause a collision with
Marussia's Timo Glock, resulting in two separate 5-place grid penalties, so was demoted by 10 places in
Monza. Maldonado started the race in 22nd and finished in 11th, just 0.5 seconds behind Senna, who finished in the final points-paying position. In
Singapore he qualified second, alongside pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. In the race, he was in contention for a podium finish, retiring on lap 37 due to a hydraulic failure. In
Japan Maldonado qualified 14th, starting 12th and finished the race 8th, his first points finish since he won in Spain nearly five months earlier. Williams' form took a turn for the worse in
Korea and Maldonado finished in 14th place after qualifying 15th. He once again managed to get into Q3 in
India, but a mistake on his final attempt left him 9th on the grid. His race was disappointing as he got his tyre punctured by Kobayashi after having passed the
Sauber driver. He eventually finished 16th. Maldonado returned to the sharp end of the grid in
Abu Dhabi where he qualified fourth, which became third as Vettel was excluded from qualifying due to having insufficient fuel in his car. He kept third place at the start and was running at the same pace as cars around him until his
KERS unit failed after the first safety car period of the race. Without KERS his car lost pace and he fell back to eventually finish fifth. Maldonado finished the season with a ninth place from ninth on the grid in the
USA and a DNF after a second lap crash from sixteenth from the grid after a ten place penalty for a third reprimand after missing a weighbridge check in
Brazil, as he finished fifteenth in the Championship on 45 points, the lowest Championship standing for a driver who won a race during an F1 season. Maldonado also received 14 penalties throughout the season, five ahead of
Sergio Pérez and
Michael Schumacher, Maldonado's grid penalties for both driving offences and gearbox changes totaled to 38 grid places, 1.8 per race.
2013 On 28 November 2012, Maldonado was retained by Williams for the season, where he was partnered by Finnish rookie
Valtteri Bottas. At the start of the season Maldonado commented that the new
FW35 chassis was a step back towards where the team were in . He failed to make it out of the first qualifying session at the first race, the , and qualified in 17th position, one place behind Bottas. Maldonado spun out in the race after 24 laps and consequently retired. At the following round in
Malaysia, Maldonado did make the second qualifying session but was caught out by the rain meaning he failed to set a time and started the race 16th. He was running in 15th place in the closing stages of the race when he retired again – his third in succession in Malaysia – due to a
KERS failure. . Photographed at the
Haynes International Motor Museum in 2024. At the
2013 Monaco Grand Prix, Maldonado and Chilton collided – when Maldonado overtook Chilton who stated he had not seen the Williams next to him entering the corner – and this brought out the red flag as the barrier became dislodged in the incident. Maldonado was not hurt in the crash. In the week following the announcement that Maldonado would not remain with the Williams team in , Maldonado accused his team of sabotage at the .
Lotus (2014–2015) On 29 November 2013, Maldonado was signed by the
Lotus F1 team, to partner
Romain Grosjean in . He drove with number 13, which was barely used in Formula One before. Maldonado's engineer was Mark Slade, who previously engineered for
Kimi Räikkönen.
2014 At the , Maldonado collided with
Esteban Gutiérrez after making a pit stop, causing Gutiérrez's car to roll. For causing the incident, Maldonado was given a ten-second stop-go penalty during the race, and after the race, three points on his
FIA Super Licence, and a five-place grid penalty for the . At the , Maldonado crashed into a wall in the pit lane during free practice. At the Maldonado crashed into the wall in the first part of qualifying. During the race the following day, Maldonado was deemed to have caused a collision when trying to pass
Marcus Ericsson, and was given a five-second stop-go penalty. He was also given a point on his FIA Super Licence after the race, his fourth of the season. At
Silverstone, Maldonado again collided with
Esteban Gutiérrez, launching his car spectacularly into the air although he was able to finish the race. In
Hungary, Maldonado lost control of his Lotus while heading to the grid, and in the race he crashed in to
Jules Bianchi when attempting an overtake. At
Spa-Francorchamps, Maldonado crashed during the second free practice session; the force of the impact required Maldonado to have a precautionary check-up at the circuit's medical centre. At the , Maldonado crashed during the second free practice session, causing a red flag. At the , Maldonado received a penalty for speeding behind the safety car, and another penalty for speeding in the pit lane, but still came home in ninth, registering his first – and ultimately, only – points-scoring finish of the 2014 season. He finished the season 16th in the Drivers' Championship.
2015 Maldonado continued to drive for Lotus in the 2015 season. In March 2015, before the season started, the Lotus car suffered a brake failure causing him to crash during testing at
Catalunya. At the , Maldonado was hit by
Felipe Nasr and crashed out of the race at the second corner of the first lap after he overtook three cars at the start and was in sixth position. At the , Maldonado's car suffered a puncture after he was hit by
Valtteri Bottas, and he was later given a ten-second time penalty for speeding behind the safety car. He accrued three penalty points on his licence for the infringement, taking his tally to eight within the previous year. At the , Maldonado suffered a brake issue that caused him to go off-track when entering the pits, and had to be recovered by the marshals. A couple of laps later, he spun the car. On lap 49, Maldonado was hit by
Jenson Button in a braking zone and spun; Maldonado was later forced to retire. At the start of the , Maldonado parked his car in the wrong grid slot, and accordingly, was given a five-second time penalty. On the first lap of the race, Maldonado was hit by
Max Verstappen, damaging Verstappen's front wing; Maldonado also was hit by Massa's car, damaging its floor. At the , Maldonado was again involved in an incident – he was hit by team mate
Romain Grosjean, who had just returned to the track after missing a braking point, causing rear wing damage to Maldonado's car. Despite the damage, Maldonado did not lose pace and was initially able to continue in seventh place; however, during his pitstop the team deemed the damage to be substantial enough to retire the car. At the , Maldonado was not able to profit from a season-best qualifying result of eighth due to a brake issue from the start of the race; Maldonado and Verstappen collided on the sixth lap, with Maldonado subsequently forced to retire from the race. After two seventh-place finishes in
Canada and
Austria, Grosjean lost control of his car causing him to crash into his team mate Maldonado on the first lap at
Silverstone, causing both Lotus cars to retire. At the , Sérgio Pérez tried to overtake Maldonado at the outside of the corner, Maldonado failed to leave enough room so the two collided, causing Pérez to spin. Maldonado was later penalised for his role in the incident. Maldonado was among numerous others that were penalised for speeding in the pit lane, Following the mid-season break during first practice at
Spa, Maldonado crashed the car into the barriers. It was reported that the incident justified Lotus's decision to save their sole example of a new front-wing design they had brought to this race for his team-mate Romain Grosjean. On the second lap of the race, Maldonado was in seventh but ran off track and hit a curb, sending a 17G shock through the car, which broke a clutch control valve, forcing him to retire. Despite the incident Maldonado was ambivalent saying "I don't care" about the damage he had caused to his car. At the next race,
Monza, Maldonado tried to avoid the chaos in the first chicane but hit Hülkenberg damaging the suspension, forcing Maldonado to retire. Following this incident
Mark Webber said that he does not think that Maldonado is talented enough to justify his drive in F1. At the
Singapore Grand Prix, Maldonado ran off track, and when he rejoined he and Button collided. The diffuser of Maldonado's car was damaged in the incident. Immediately after the incident, world champion Button took to the radio to say about Maldonado "I should have known, he's mental". Soon after the incident, Lotus confirmed that Maldonado would drive for the team in 2016. In
Japan, Maldonado started from outside the top-ten, but got up to seventh immediately after the start. However, he was overtaken by Hülkenberg during the first stop, dropping him to eighth, where he remained until the end of the race. In
Russia, he started in 14th position. He had made up six positions during the race to finish in eighth place, which became seventh as Räikkönen was penalised for causing an accident on the last lap. In the
US Grand Prix, Maldonado started 13th, but had to take avoiding action in the first corner, which dropped him to 18th. Despite this, he managed to get back in the battle for the points, because of the high attrition in the race and two safety car periods, when he caught up the cars in front of him. In the end, he finished eighth. At the
Brazilian Grand Prix, Maldonado ran into the side of Ericsson. Maldonado's Lotus team described the incident as an "oops", but the stewards considered the incident to be serious so imposed a five-second penalty on Maldonado. Despite the penalty, he managed to finish in the points. At the
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Maldonado and Alonso collided, damaging Maldonado's car and forcing him to retire. Maldonado ended the season with 27 points and 14th place in the Drivers' World Championship. Commentators looked back at his career fondly while commenting on the inconsistency that had earned him the nickname "
Crashtor". Maldonado was originally due to continue with Lotus for 2016, however, the team was bought by
Renault, and Maldonado's contract was terminated following several problems with Maldonado's sponsor,
PDVSA. He was replaced by former
McLaren driver
Kevin Magnussen.
Pirelli test driver (2017) Maldonado became a test driver for
Pirelli, testing a GP2 car for 2017, to be able to develop the tires of the season. Maldonado had his first tests at the
Mugello and
Barcelona circuits.
Attempts to return to Formula One or enter IndyCar With the announcement of the retirement of
Nico Rosberg following the conclusion of the
2016 championship, Maldonado negotiated with
Sauber Motorsport for a return to Formula One, with no agreement being reached. Maldonado also negotiated with
IndyCar team
KV Racing Technology, with no agreement being reached, and the team being sold due to financial difficulties.
World Endurance Championship and 24 Hours of Daytona .
2018–19 On 21 March 2018,
DragonSpeed confirmed that Pastor Maldonado would contest the entire "superseason" of the
World Endurance Championship, in the
LMP2 category with an
Oreca 07, together with
Roberto González, as well as
Nathanaël Berthon in the first two rounds, and
Anthony Davidson in the rest. They finished third in their category in the championship. Pastor also competed in the
2019 24 Hours of Daytona in the LMP2 category, also with DragonSpeed and alongside Roberto González,
Sebastián Saavedra and
Ryan Cullen. They finished first in their category. ==Personal life==