Manuel Maldonado

Manuel Maldonado Vargas is a Venezuelan racing driver currently racing in the European Le Mans Series for United Autosports. He is the cousin of former Formula One driver Pastor Maldonado.

Early career

Italian F4

Maldonado's first experience in single seaters was in Italian F4 in 2016. 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 a best result of 12th at Adria.

MRF Challenge

Maldonado's first points of his career came at the opening round of the 2016–17 MRF Challenge [Formula 2000 Championship] where he finished ninth. 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 on seven occasions. He originally finished third in the second Bahrain race, but was later disqualified.

British F3

Maldonado joined the Fortec Motorsport team for the 2017 BRDC [British Formula 3 Championship|2017 British F3 Championship]. He was excluded from the final race at Rockingham for “driving in a manner not compatible with safety”, having previously spun out Omar Ismail. With a best finish of sixth at Silverstone, Maldonado ended up 12th in the standings. For 2018, Maldonado returned to 2018 BRDC British [Formula 3 Championship|British F3] with Fortec. At the opening round on a wet Oulton Park circuit, Maldonado went from sixth to first at the start of the reversed-grid race and hung on to win a safety-car-affected event. In the Snetterton reversed-grid race, Maldonado defended his pole position to win again. He concluded the year by finishing seventh overall. Maldonado remained at Fortec for a third season in 2019. A podium in the reversed-grid season opener at Oulton Park was followed by a best placing of fifth in the next two rounds respectively. Thanks to two offs for Nazim Azman in the Donington reversed-grid race, Maldonado inherited third place. Following a battle with Neil Verhagen in the first event at Spa-Francorchamps, the Venezuelan finished third again. Maldonado started Silverstone's reversed-grid race from pole, from where he drove out a commanding lead to claim victory. With his fifth podium of the season at Donnington, Maldonado improved to a sixth place in the championship table.

Euroformula Open

Maldonado joined the Germany-based Team Motopark for the 2020 Euroformula Open Championship. His maiden podiums came at the Red Bull Ring, where he finished second in both races. With further second places at Spa and Barcelona, Maldonado finished fourth in the standings in a season dominated by Ye Yifei.

Sportscar career

2021: AsLMS LMP3 title and LMP2 debut

Maldonado joined United Autosports for the Asian Le Mans Series at the start of 2021, driving a Ligier JS P320 in the LMP3 class alongside Wayne Boyd and Rory Penttinen. Two victories at Dubai laid the groundwork for the campaign. Following an alternator failure in the first Abu Dhabi race, the trio returned to dominate the following day, clinching the LMP3 title with a third win of the season.
Heading into the summer season, Maldonado stepped into the LMP2 category of the European Le Mans Series with United, partnering Nico Jamin and Job van Uitert. Despite finishing third at Le Castellet, the team ended up ninth in the teams' standings. The season included a positive COVID-19 test for van Uitert at Monza, which forced the team to miss the racing weekend, an early puncture at Spa which caused United to drop from podium contention to fifth with tyre wear issues as the race progressed, and a collision for van Uitert caused by Markus Pommer in Portimão. Maldonado also made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut alongside Jamin and Jonathan Aberdein in 2021. In the race's sixth hour, Maldonado went through the gravel trap at the Dunlop Chicane due to wet conditions and hit the sister United car of Paul di Resta. This caused an immediate retirement for Maldonado's car and led to repairs for the sister entry; Maldonado later apologised for causing the incident.

2022: GT World Challenge

In 2022, Maldonado made his GT debut with Garage 59, driving a McLaren 720S GT3 in the silver class of both 2022 GT [World Challenge Europe|GT World Challenge Europe] championships. In the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup|Endurance Cup], Maldonado scored two class podiums alongside Nicolai Kjærgaard; they finished sixth in the drivers' standings. In the Sprint Cup, Maldonado partnered Ethan Simioni for the first four events. Ahead of the final round, Simioni was replaced by Kjærgaard, alongside whom Maldonado scored a season-high sixth place overall and second in the silver category. Maldonado finished seventh in the Sprint Cup standings within his category.

2023–24: ELMS with Panis

Maldonado returned to the ELMS in 2023, partnering Job van Uitert and Tijmen [van der Helm] at Panis Racing. After finishing fifth at Barcelona - third in the Pro class - the Panis crew dropped out of the lead in Le Castellet due to a puncture for van der Helm. A strong run by van Uitert in Aragón was undone by a late Full-Course Yellow period, after which the Panis car fell to fourth. At the start of the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Maldonado misjudged his braking point and caused a four-car pileup. Despite the damage and a penalty for the crash, Panis Racing finished eighth overall and second in the Pro class. In the Algarve race, the team finished third overall. They then repeated the feat in race 2 of the weekend and ended up third in the LMP2 Pro standings.
For the 2024 ELMS season, Maldonado remained at Panis, this time driving alongside Charles Milesi and Arthur Leclerc. The team began with a fifth place in Barcelona, then finished eighth in Le Castellet. Thanks to a pole position and subsequently strong race drive by Milesi, Maldonado won the 4 Hours of Imola. The team were provisionally demoted to second due to a FCY infringement penalty, before an appeal led to their win being reinstated. Panis were then on course for a podium at Spa, but Milesi lost pace in the closing laps and finished sixth. A fourth place in Mugello, where Milesi again dropped from the podium in the final laps, led to a title decider at Portimão. Though Milesi scored pole position, a collision between him and Felipe Drugovich caused the Panis crew to finish outside the points. This left Maldonado and his teammates fourth in the drivers' championship.

2025: Return to United

Maldonado returned to United Autosports to contest the 2025 ELMS campaign alongside Ben Hanley and Grégoire Saucy.

Racing record

Career summary

^† As Maldonado was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

Complete Italian F4 Championship results

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