Manuel Maldonado

Maldonado's first single-seater season was Italian F4 in 2016 with Cram Motorsport, alongside Leonard Hoogenboom. A difficult debut year produced no points and a best finish of twelfth at Adria. He subsequently competed in the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 Championship across the 2016–17 and 2017–18 seasons, recording modest results including an originally classified third place at Bahrain in 2017–18 that was later overturned by disqualification.

Maldonado raced in the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship for three seasons with Fortec Motorsport. His 2017 campaign ended twelfth in the standings after he was excluded from the final Rockingham race for driving deemed incompatible with safety. In 2018 he broke through with two victories: a reversed-grid win from sixth on the grid at a wet Oulton Park opening round, and a second reversed-grid win at Snetterton where he defended pole position. He finished seventh in the championship. In 2019 he added a third victory at Silverstone from reversed-grid pole and accumulated five podiums across the season, finishing sixth overall.

Maldonado joined Team Motopark for the 2020 Euroformula Open Championship. He recorded four podium finishes — two second places at the Red Bull Ring, a second at Spa, and a second at Barcelona — finishing fourth in a season dominated by Ye Yifei.

Maldonado joined United Autosports for the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series, driving a Ligier JS P320 in the LMP3 class alongside Wayne Boyd and Rory Penttinen. Two victories at Dubai established the foundations of the title campaign. After an alternator failure ended their first Abu Dhabi race, the trio dominated the second Abu Dhabi round to clinch the LMP3 championship with a third win of the season.

The same year, Maldonado stepped into LMP2 for the European Le Mans Series with United, co-driving an Oreca 07 with Nico Jamin and Job van Uitert. The season was disrupted by a COVID-19 withdrawal at Monza, a puncture at Spa that dropped the car from podium contention to fifth, and a collision at Portimao caused by a rival driver. The team finished ninth in the ELMS standings despite a third-place result at Le Castellet.

Maldonado made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in 2021 alongside Jamin and Jonathan Aberdein. In the sixth hour, running in wet conditions, he went through the gravel at the Dunlop Chicane and struck the sister United car of Paul di Resta, causing an immediate retirement for his entry and requiring repairs for the other car. Maldonado apologised publicly for the incident.

Maldonado moved to GT racing in 2022 with Garage 59, driving a McLaren 720S GT3 in the Silver class of both GT World Challenge Europe championships. He scored two class podiums in the Endurance Cup alongside Nicolai Kjærgaard, finishing sixth in the Silver drivers' standings. In the Sprint Cup he partnered Ethan Simioni for most of the season before Simioni was replaced by Kjærgaard for the finale, where they achieved a class runner-up result.

Maldonado returned to the ELMS with Panis Racing in 2023, partnering Job van Uitert and Tijmen van der Helm in an Oreca 07-Gibson. The team finished third in the LMP2 Pro standings after podiums at the Algarve rounds and a third at Portimao.

For 2024, still at Panis (in conjunction with TDS Racing), Maldonado drove alongside Charles Milesi and Arthur Leclerc. The season's highlight was the 4 Hours of Imola, where a pole position by Milesi was converted into a race victory — the team's first ELMS win. The result was provisionally demoted to second following a full-course yellow infringement penalty before a successful appeal reinstated the win. Despite podium-contending pace at several subsequent rounds, a collision at Portimao in the title decider left Maldonado and his teammates fourth in the drivers' championship.

Maldonado returned to United Autosports for the 2025 ELMS season, co-driving car 22 with Ben Hanley and Grégoire Saucy in LMP2.