Pastor Maldonaldo looking to join IndyCar series

Being a guest for KVSH Racing during a race at Iowa Speedway last weekend, Pastor Maldonaldo appears to be looking at taking a seat in the open-wheel oval track series of IndyCar.

The Venezuelan, following an incident-filled stint in Formula 1, had this to say to motorsport.com in an interview regarding his presence at the race: “I came here because I was very interested to see racing on ovals. At the moment it’s early to say anything about racing in IndyCar, and at the moment we are negotiating. In the last 15 years I have been fully involved in Europe so it is not easy to come here and change everything.”

“We are looking now at all options, and we have plenty of things to look at. This year, I am fully involved with Pirelli in developing the new wide tires for Formula 1 next year.”

In terms of options for next year, Maldonaldo is looking into a seat in Le Mans as well as returning to Formula 1 – but only if he were to be given a seat with a competitive team.

“Right now Formula 1 is in a tough situation with big gaps between the teams. I need a team that lets me fight every weekend for good points. If I don’t have the chance to go with a good team, I will look around. Even the 24 Hours of Le Mans and also here. But I will be deciding later.”

KVSH Co-owner Jimmy Vasser said however that the likelihood of Maldonaldo racing for their team this year is not high. Elaborating on the former F1 driver’s presence, Vasser explains: “Adam Parr is director of Cosworth, which obviously Kevin Kalkhoven owns, but Adam was at Williams when Pastor was there. Kevin and Pastor met up in Florida, so they came along as our guests.”

Currently there are no concrete plans for the Venezuelan to make the shift to another series, but given how he’s currently keeping his options open we could see him crashing something else other than a F1 car soon.