Manuel Maldonado, the cousin of Pastor Maldonado, has signed with Fortec Motorsport, joining their BRDC British F3 Championship squad for the upcoming season. This will be his second season in single-seaters.
Prior to this, Manuel spent the year in Italian F4. He had a tough start to his career, becoming one of just two drivers to have competed all year without scoring a point and recording a best finish of twelfth.
His fortunes improved slightly during the winter. He competed in the MRF Challenge, collecting 15 points and finishing fourteenth in the overall standings despite not finishing a race higher than ninth place.
Maldonado said: “It’s a great opportunity for me to have signed with Fortec, I have worked with them in the past and I am very happy to be here. I know that we can develop well together. Now we keep preparing hard for the upcoming season and it’s an honour for me to represent my country Venezuela in a British championship.”
At Fortec, he’ll compete alongside Nicolai Kjaergaard, who spent 2016 in the F4 British Championship, as well as Ben Hingeley, who will return for a title fight. Hingeley recorded podiums and a pole position towards the end of last year and will be on good form going into the new season.
Russ Dixon, Team Manager of Fortec Motorsports’ British F3 squad, commented: “We are very pleased to welcome Manuel to the team for the season ahead, and also to have completed our line-up for 2017 BRDC British F3. Manuel is a talented young driver and we are looking forward to helping him progress throughout the year.”
The first round of the 2017 BRDC F3 season takes place on 15-17 April at Oulton Park.
