Pastor Maldonado has admitted he cannot be certain his F1 career will continue long after the death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Sponsoring Williams via the state-controlled PDVSA oil company, Chavez died of cancer last week and Maldonado rushed back to his native country before Australia for his funeral.
Asked if the death will affect his career, Maldonado admitted in Melbourne: "Politically, I don't know. I think many of you in the media have said everything is gone for me, but here I am. We'll see."
The 28-year-old backed Chavez's controversial approach to ploughing state money into sports, Maldonado noting that, previously, "people only knew Venezuela for the oil and the girls". "I think it changed a lot with Chavez and now it can be worse. We've started and now we need to carry on."
Meanwhile, technical boss Mike Coughlan is leading the Williams team in Melbourne, with team boss Frank Williams and his daughter Claire back in the UK in the wake of the death of wife and mother Ginny. "We obviously have to move on, but I hope we do well this weekend in Ginny's memory," said Coughlan. (GMM)
Maldonado uncertain about future PDVSA backing
- Published on 15 Mar 2013 10:44
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- By: Rob Veenstra
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Driver profile
- Team Renault
- Points 27
- Podiums 0
- Grand Prix 19
- Country VE
- Date of b. Mar 9 1985 (41)
- Place of b. Maracay, Aragua, VE
- Weight 68 kg
- Length 1.73 m
- 27,547 comments on Renault
9 members have this team as their favourite
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Team profile
- Team name Williams
- Base Grove, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
- Jacques Villeneuve 1
- Logan Sargeant 2
- Ayrton Senna 2
- Jacques Villeneuve 3
- Nicholas Latifi 6
- Jacques Villeneuve 6
- Nico Rosberg 7
- Nico Hülkenberg 10
- Nico Rosberg 10
- Jenson Button 10
- Pastor Maldonado 12
- Pastor Maldonado 16
- Nico Rosberg 16
- Nico Rosberg 16
- Valtteri Bottas 17
- Lance Stroll 18
- Pastor Maldonado 18
- Felipe Massa 19
- Alexander Albon 23
- Sergey Sirotkin 35
- Nyck de Vries 45
- Carlos Sainz jr 55
- George Russell 63
- Valtteri Bottas 77
- Robert Kubica 88
- 160,995 comments on Williams
- 38 members have this team as their favourite
- Tweets about Williams
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