Pastor Maldonado, everybody’s favorite Formula One crashing machine and namesake of ASN’s weekly poor driving award claims he “had an offer to drive in F1 in 2017” but rejected the offer because he says “…I chose not to do it, because I had no guarantee that it would be a competitive car. If I do something, I do it right.”
After a disastrous – putting it kindly – 2015 campaign at the then-Lotus team, the Venezuelan was unable to return for the 2016 season after Renault had taken over Lotus when his main sponsor, Venezuelan gas/oil company PDVSA, was unable to fund his seat for $46 million per year. He was then unceremoniously replaced by Kevin Magnussen.
Maldonado won one race – the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix – in 96 career races in Formula One.