Pastor Maldonado is adamant his F1 career is not in jeopardy despite threats from Venezuela’s new sports minister to pull the plug on the country’s financial support for motor racing.

Maldonado has long been supported, either directly or indirectly, by Venezuela’s state-owned oil giant PDVSA.

Since Maldonado entered F1, PDVSA have provided sponsorship, initially to his maiden team Williams and now current marque Lotus, understood to be around £27 million per year.

But in light of Venezuela’s current financial crisis, sports minister Antonio Alvarez has categorically stated “there will not be another dollar for motorsport”.

Maldonado, however, insists neither he nor PDVSA are affected as he said: “The sports minister is not sponsoring me, and PDVSA is not part of his programme. They are separate.

“The oil company doesn’t talk about sponsorship in Formula One. This was a communication from the sport minister, and that’s it.”

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