Nov.19 (GMM) Pastor Maldonado has refused to confirm speculation he has already signed to make his F1 debut with the Williams team in 2011.
In Abu Dhabi this week, the new GP2 champion has been testing both with Williams as well as HRT, the Spanish team that will use a gearbox supplied by Oxfordshire based Williams next year.
Williams has cleared a 2011 race seat alongside Rubens Barrichello by ousting Nico Hulkenberg, whose manager Willi Weber said on Monday that the team has “probably already done a deal with Pastor Maldonado”.
It is assumed that Williams has signed Maldonado because it needs his financial backing provided by the Venezuelan government and the petroleum company PDVSA.
But Maldonado is quoted by F1’s official website: “At the moment, no comment on that.”
