Manuel Maldonado

Manuel Maldonado Vargas (born 5 October 1999) is a Venezuelan racing driver who last competed in the European Le Mans Series for United Autosports. He is the cousin of former Formula One driver Pastor Maldonado.

Early career Maldonado in the paddock at the Brands Hatch British F3 round in 2019. 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.

Maldonado starting from the front row at the Red Bull Ring in 2020.

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 two finishes of eighth 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 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 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.

Manuel Maldonado and teammates with Garage 59 at Barcelona 2022.

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 GT World Challenge Europe championships. In the 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 (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 MIS1 MIS2 MIS3 MIS4 ADR1 ADR2 ADR3 ADR4 IMO11 IMO12 IMO13 MUG1 MUG2 MUG3 VLL1 VLL2 VLL3 IMO21 IMO22 IMO23 MNZ1 MNZ2 MNZ3 36th 0

Complete MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pos Points 2016-17 BHR1 BHR2 BHR3 BHR4 DUB1 DUB2 DUB3 DUB4 GNO1 GNO2 GNO3 GNO4 CHE1 CHE2 CHE3 CHE4 14th 20 2017-18 BHR1 BHR2 BHR3 BHR4 DUB1 DUB2 DUB3 DUB4 YMC1 YMC2 YMC3 YMC4 CHE1 CHE2 CHE3 CHE4 12th 39

Complete BRDC British Formula 3 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 24 DC Points 2017 Fortec Motorsports OUL1 OUL2 OUL3 ROC1 ROC2 ROC3 SNE11 SNE12 SNE13 SIL1 SIL2 SIL3 SPA1 SPA2 SPA3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 SNE21 SNE22 SNE23 DON1 DON2 DON3 12th 205 2018 Fortec Motorsports OUL1 OUL2 OUL3 ROC1 ROC2 ROC3 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 SIL11 SIL12 SIL13 SPA1 SPA2 SPA3 BHI1 BHI2 BHI3 DON1 DON2 DON3 SIL21 SIL22 SIL23 7th 292 2019 Fortec Motorsports OUL1 OUL2 OUL3 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 SIL11 SIL12 SIL13 DON11 DON12 DON13 SPA1 SPA2 SPA3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 SIL21 SIL22 SIL23 DON21 DON22 DON23 6th 348

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 LEC1 LEC2 PAU1 PAU2 HOC1 HOC2 SPA1 SPA2 HUN1 HUN2 RBR1 RBR2 SIL1 SIL2 CAT1 CAT2 MNZ1 MNZ2 24th 0 2020 Team Motopark HUN1 HUN2 LEC1 LEC2 RBR1 RBR2 MNZ1 MNZ2 MNZ3 MUG1 MUG2 SPA1 SPA2 SPA3 CAT1 CAT2 CAT3 CAT4 4th 153

Manuel with team boss Olivier Panis and teammate Job van Uitert.

Complete European Le Mans Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rank Points 2021 United Autosports LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 CAT RBR LEC MNZ SPA ALG 12th 28.5 2023 Panis Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 CAT LEC ARA SPA POR ALG 3rd 86 2024 Panis VDS Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 CAT LEC IMO SPA MUG ALG 4th 61 2025 United Autosports LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 CAT LEC IMO SPA SIL ALG 14th 15

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps 2021 United Autosports Nico Jamin Jonathan Aberdein Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 75 DNF DNF 2023 Panis Racing Tijmen van der Helm Job van Uitert Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 316 25th 14th

Complete GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup results (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pos. Points 2022 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Silver BRH1 BRH2 MAG1 MAG2 ZAN1 ZAN2 MIS1 MIS2 VAL1 VAL 2 7th 54