Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRenault

Magnussen in line to replace Maldonado

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Kevin Magnussen is in line to replace Pastor Maldonado at Renault if a dispute over the Venezuelan's PDVSA sponsorship cannot be resolved.

Maldonado's future with the team has been in doubt as a result of a lack of payments from the oil giant amid growing economic concern in Venezuela following a steep decline in oil prices. Autosport now reports Renault has agreed a deal with Magnussen to replace Maldonado, which is due to be completed ahead of the Renault team launch in Paris on February 3.

F1i understands Magnussen had originally held talks with Renault regarding a third driver role which were later elevated to discussions regarding Maldonado's drive. Magnussen has also been in talks with Manor about a potential race or reserve seat with the team.

Should a deal go ahead Magnussen would be returning to a race seat after a year as McLaren's reserve driver. The Dane scored a podium with second place on his debut in Australia in 2014 but after being demoted to allow for the arrival of Fernando Alonso a year later he was dropped completely at the end of last season.

Maldonado has been with Renault - under the team's previous guise as Lotus - for two years so far, scoring 27 points as he finished 14th in the drivers' championship in 2015.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.