08/11/2010
NEWS STORY
GP2 Champion Pastor Maldonado, who will take part in the Young Drivers test with Williams next week, will also testing with Hispania during three of the four test days in Abu Dhabi.
The Spanish team, which recently announced that it will be using gearbox technology supplied by Williams next season and has also welcomed former Telefonica president Juan Villalonga as a partner, is known to be looking for financial opportunities.
While Maldonado - who has backing from Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA - has money, and looked likely to be heading to Williams, it is entirely possible that the Grove team will retain its current line-up - especially after Nico Hulkenberg's performance on Saturday - with the Venezuelan spending a season at Hispania.
The 25 year-old Venezuelan began his career in karting at the age of seven. His first experience in Formula racing was in Italy in 2003. He competed in the Formula Renault Championship with Cram Competition and won the Italian title in 2004. That same year he was given the chance to test with the Minardi F1 Team in Misano.
He followed that up with a year in the Italian F3000 Championship before moving on to Formula Renault 3.5 Series where he classified third, with three race wins, six further podium finishes and five pole positions. In 2007 he moved to the GP2 Series, where he ended the season as the best rookie. The following year he continued in GP2, finishing the year in 5th place. In 2009, he took part in several GP2 Asia Series races as well as the GP2 main Series with ART Grand Prix Team, finishing 6th with two wins.