Pastor Maldonado, the new GP2 champion, had hoped to secure the Sauber race seat alongside Kamui Kobayashi for 2011.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old is managed by Nicolas Todt and backed by Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA and even the South American country’s president Hugo Chavez.<\/p>\n
According to Brazilian journalist Livio Oricchio in Estado, Maldonado said at Monza last month: “We have had several meetings with Peter Sauber.<\/p>\n
“Everything has been put on the table; my experience and growth as a driver, that I am ready for the challenge of formula one, details of what we can invest.<\/p>\n
“PDVSA is important to our project and I know that our package is very good.\u00a0 But I know I’m not alone in the fight for this place at Sauber.<\/p>\n
“There are people in the play with plenty of ballast,” said Maldonado.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Sauber announced that 20-year-old Mexican Sergio Perez, second in the GP2 standings behind champion Maldonado, will be Kobayashi’s teammate in 2011.<\/p>\n
Also joining Sauber is Perez’s sponsor Telmex, the Mexican telecommunications giant headed by the world’s richest man Carlos Slim.<\/p>\n
Oricchio wrote: “Peter Sauber does not like inexperienced drivers who commit many mistakes.<\/p>\n
“But the Swiss had little choice: either accept the proposals of Hugo Chavez or Carlos Slim, or not race in the next world championship.<\/p>\n
“It’s so difficult to get a sponsor to invest 30 million euros a season, and I believe the negotiations with Telmex were in that range,” he added.<\/p>\n
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