🇬🇧 Manuel Maldonado

Manuel Maldonado is a professional endurance racing driver competing in multiclass prototype and GT machinery. Graded FIA Silver, he races primarily for United Autosports in the European Le Mans Series, where he pilots an LMP2 prototype in a field mixing amateurs, semi-professionals and graded professionals. His career spans nine seasons from 2016 onwards, with earlier single-seater racing in GB3 and Italian Formula 4 before moving into endurance competition in 2021.[1]

Maldonado took three wins in GB3 during 2017 and 2019 with Fortec Motorsports, the team that developed Charles Leclerc among many others, and seven podiums across 66 starts in that series. His transition to endurance racing brought a win in the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie in 2023 with Walkenhorst Motorsport and four podiums in 21 European Le Mans Series starts for United Autosports, including a victory at Imola in 2024. He has also sampled GT World Challenge Europe and World Endurance Championship competition. His Racer Rating of 4,439 places him among established professionals in the endurance field.[2]

In GB3, Maldonado raced regularly against Jamie Chadwick, a three-time W Series champion with extensive single-seater pedigree, and the pair proved closely matched. Against the broader endurance grid he has finished ahead of drivers of markedly higher standing, including four occasions beating Frederik Vesti, a Formula 2 champion graded FIA Platinum, and one meeting with Jean-Eric Vergne, a two-time Formula E champion also graded Platinum. His most frequent scalp is Sasakorn Chaimongkol, whom he typically outpaces in their shared GB3 campaigns, though his endurance record reflects the nature of shared-car racing and co-driver performance as much as his own pace.