“What happened to them?” – Pastor Maldonado, the intrepid pilot turned wealth manager

All those who followed the Formula 1 in the 2010s have not forgotten the colorful Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado. GP2 champion in 2010 with Rapax, notably against a certain Sergio Pérez, he reached the premier category in 2011 by replacing Nico Hulkenberg in Williams thanks to his sponsor, PDVSA. Blessed with raw but often uncontrollable talent, Maldonado quickly established himself as a figure as fascinating as he was controversial. Affectionately – or ironically – nicknamed “Crashtor Maldonado” by some followers, the Venezuelan was capable of the best… and the worst!

A true epic, Pastor Maldonado's time in F1 is marked by his fiery temperament and his audacity. By winning the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012 while he was only an outsider, in a Williams at the bottom of the table, he scored Williams' first victory since 2004, to the cheers of a stunned crowd. Throughout the race, he managed to impose himself against the championship favorites, in particular Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, whom he towers over on the podium, without making a single mistake. This success gives him hero status in Venezuela and proves to his detractors that he is not just a sponsored driver.

On the podium, lifted by Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen © ERIC VARGIOLU / DPPI

Maldonado, an explosive pilot

This unforgettable day also illustrated the Venezuelan driver's intrepidness. During the celebration of his first place, an explosion broke out in the heart of the Williams garage, giving rise to a spectacular fire that ravaged the facility and injured several members of the team. In a rare act of courage, Pastor Maldonado did not flee from danger: he rushed into the rubble to rescue his cousin, trapped in the middle of the flames. However, this act of bravery has often been overshadowed by the controversies surrounding his driving style and his behavior on the track.

The rest of his career was punctuated by incredible incidents on the track and in the paddock. Pastor Maldonado was not only fast, he was also unpredictable. With 146 penalties recorded in five years of presence in F1, he became the nightmare of race stewards. We remember his repeated clashes with Sergio Pérez, his spectacular collision with Esteban Gutiérrez in Bahrain in 2014, his multiple blunders and so many other track exits. Add to that verbal altercations with journalists and a sometimes disconcerting frankness in his interviews, and you have a character as surprising as he is funny.

Pitstop in Endurance

At the end of the 2015 season, his sponsor's funding difficulties and his reputation as the "number one danger" on the track led Lotus to push him out. Without a drive for 1, rumours suggested he could join the WEC in LM P2 alongside Manor, but it was only two years later that he made his return to the world of motorsport by joining DragonSpeed ​​for the 2018-2019 super-season.

Maldonado and his DragonSpeed ​​teammates on the podium of the 6h of Shanghai in 2018 © FLORENT GOODEN / DPPI Media

Pastor Maldonado finds a new dynamic in a discipline where consistency takes precedence over pure aggressiveness. He participates in the 24H of Le Mans in his category and finished ninth in the standings alongside Roberto González and Nathanaël Berthon and won the 24 2019 Hours of Daytona. While he was due to participate with Jota in the 2019-2020 campaign, the Venezuelan driver gave up a week before the start of the season to explore new horizons off the circuits... and yet, in March 2023, a video posted on Isotta Fraschini's X account suggested a return of the South American in Endurance for 2024. Finally, his collaboration with the Lombard firm did not happen.

Thank you to train Formula 1 driver #PastorMaldonado, winner of the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix, who came to #IsottaFraschini to visit our company, meet the management and see live the Tipo 6 LMH Competizione #hypercar.
_____
#Tipo6Competizione #IFMcars @PastorMaldo pic.twitter.com/vz2VJiwRKY

— Isotta Fraschini Milano Fabbrica Automobili (@IFautomobili) March 30, 2023

From the steering wheel to finance

For his reconversion, Pastor Maldonado swaps the helmet for the suit. After drawing a line under his racing career in 2019, he turns to wealth management by creating the company GPM Group with his wife, Gabriela Tarkany Maldonado. Based between Monaco and Latin America, the former Williams driver now helps wealthy clients – mainly athletes and entrepreneurs – manage and enhance their assets. This transition is not so surprising when you consider the crucial role played by Venezuelan oil sponsor PDVSA in his career, which also allowed him to develop an interest in the workings of finance.

Although he is less prolific than other former drivers on social media, the former Lotus driver remains active on Instagram, where he shares moments of his daily life (family getaways, work meetings and charity commitments) while taking care to stay away from the controversies that have often marked his career as a driver...

 

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