Pastor Maldonado will not be in the grid for the 2016 season he confirmed in a statement on Twitter this afternoon.
The Venezuelan was supposed to be driving for the newly rebadged Renault team, formally team Lotus, but he has lost the seat due to his sponsorship payments falling through. It is now largely believed his vacant seat will be filled by ex-McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen.
PDVSA, the Venezuelan sponsored oil and gas company, and Maldonado’s principal backers, have been paying £20million a year for Maldonado’s seat in Formula 1. However due to the falling rate of oil prices the economy out there has crashed. Resulting in the company no longer being able to afford to pay for his seat.
Maldonado took to twitter to thank his family, friends, and fans for the support he’s been shown over the years. “Thanks for all your messages of support, passion and concern for my future. I feel very honoured with the support of all of you and proud of my professional performance.”
Pastor Maldonado’s career has spanned five seasons, three at Williams and two at Lotus totalling 95 starts. His career highlight was winning the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, the first win for Williams since the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix.
However, Maldonado is often remembered more as a controversial driver. Despite showing race winning talent and speed the Venezuelan has never managed to shake off the tag of “pay-driver.” As well as this he has been noted for his multiple crashes and incidents during race weekends. With websites even being dedicated to charting his crashes and the amount of penalties he picks up as well. Maldonado struggled alongside team mate Romain Grosjean this year. Out-qualifying him on only two occasions, the worst of any team mate head-to-head on the grid. Despite this it was announced at the Singapore Grand Prix the team would be keeping him for the 2016 season.
Renault, the team Maldonado was supposed to be driving for, are yet to comment. However, the team are expected to confirm Danish driver Magnussen alongside British rookie Joylon Palmer for the coming season at an event on Wednesday.
The only team to have not confirmed their drivers yet is Manor, though Maldonado has ruled himself out of this seat as well.
