Pastor Maldonado made his first appearance at a 2016 Grand Prix weekend in Monaco as he continues to work on a return to F1 with the help of manager Nicolas Todt.
The Venezuelan lost his Renault seat to Kevin Magnussen after issues with his main sponsor PDVSA.
“We started a few weeks ago, and we’re here working around and trying of course to be back next year,” he told this website. “I should have even more sponsors. I think the chances are quite high, so let’s do our best and try to put a good package together to be in a good team, and try to be always in the points, and not a lot of problems as I’ve been having in the past. There is a good chance – there is movement around, so we’ll see.
“PDVSA isn’t the only company in Venezuela. For sure it’s maybe the most important one, but we’re suffering now because there’s an oil crisis around the world, and the oil price is very down now. It seems like it’s coming up, and that will help the country.”
Maldonado has been keeping his eye in by conducting 2017 F1 tire testing for Pirelli.
“I feel ready. I’ve been driving a lot with Pirelli with a modified GP2 car. I’ve been to Mugello and Barcelona, trying construction and compounds. Now the next step is to transfer that to the wider tires.”
He insists that F1 is his priority: “At the moment yes, but for sure we will work on a Plan B, but at the moment we don’t have anything clear. We’ll see, maybe Indy, LMP1 or DTM. There are a few choices. We are quite open at the moment.”
Adam Cooper F1 
Maldo is an enigma. He won a race in great style beating Alonso and Raikkonen, and that in spite of his celebrated and well-earned soubriquet “Crasher”.
He might well have found himself a drive [with the help of funding] but happily for F1 there is currently no shortage of extremely talented young drivers, even if most have so far won praises but no races. The age of the pay driver who is short on talent seems to be passing….
It’s amazing to contemplate isn’t it? Maldo allegedly had between $40-$50 MILLION dollars in backing from PDVSA. Must be some kind of record, I would imagine?
If he can still find a high level of backing from economically struggling Venezuela, what cash strapped team could afford to overlook his “assets”?
“Anyone? Anyone? Sauber?”
.. if he could stretch that to $75m or so he might be looking at a ferrari drive!