Maldonado to quit Williams?

Pastor Maldonado appears to be undecided over where his future lies in Formula One.

The 27-year-old was given his first chance in Formula One by the Williams team and were rewarded with their first victory since 2004 when the Venezuelan secured an unlikely win at the Spanish Grand Prix in May.

Maldonado has shown impressive pace during qualifying sessions and testing, but in the races he has proved to be a little haphazard, getting involved in a number of incidents and retiring from races all too often.

In fact the Japanese Grand Prix was the first points finish Maldonado has had since winning the Spanish race [his third points finish]. Whilst team-mate Bruno Senna had clocked up five top ten finishes during those nine races [totalling seven points finishes].

But despite the erratic performances it would appear that it is still Maldonado who holds the power in this relationship.

The Williams team might be much improved in comparison to 2011, but do not underestimate the power the driver wields with the reported $55million backing from Venezuelan oil company PDVSA that comes hand-in-hand with Maldonado.

‘At the moment there is a chance to go to other teams but we are considering remaining here, but it is still too early,’ Maldonado said to Sky Sports.

‘The team usually confirm their drivers at the end of the season but we are talking, negotiating. This is a good family for me I feel really good here, they feel really happy with me but we know how Formula One is, it can change one day from another.

‘It is difficult to say, until other teams have confirmed their drivers you never know. It is difficult. I need to keep pushing, doing my job in the team to try and get some points and we will see.’

If Maldonado was to consider leaving Williams where could he go?

Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes are the only teams thus far to confirm their drive line-ups for 2013, whilst Ferrari are expected to confirm a contract extension for Felipe Massa soon.

That leaves potential openings at Sauber following Sergio Perez’s exit to McLaren, Force India who are yet to confirm duo Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenburg are staying, whilst ironically due to on track collisions Lotus could be forced to review Romain Grosjean’s position with the team.

Toro Rosso, Caterham, HRT and Marussia would of course be seen as backward steps.