Pastor Maldonado says he will be at Williams in 2012

Pastor Maldonado is convinced that he will be on the Formula 1 grid with Williams, thus denying speculation about a lack of agreement between his sponsor (the Venezuelan PDVSA) and Williams.

The 26-year-old rookie said he was "very confident" in his position at Williams despite Venezuelan congressman Carlos Ramos demanding Williams provide details about the partnership for investigation.

“I don't know exactly what's happening but I'm not worried about that,” says Maldonado before the Brazilian Grand Prix.

“I'm doing well, I'm doing my job, I feel very close to my country, the sponsor and the Team. So I'm very happy to be here and I would like to continue, that's for sure.”

“It is difficult to explain why Venezuela did this. It's a political situation, given that there will be elections next year, so there is a bit of tension. But I don't care, you know, I do my best and I'm always a good representative of Venezuela so I don't worry."

When asked if he believes the agreement between PDVSA and Williams will be renewed, he replies: “Definitely, I don't know exactly what the contract is and what the agreement with Williams is, but I think PSDVA is a great and company manager, very serious and I believe that everything will be done in the right way."

“It's a great project, not only to have Maldonado in F1, but also to publicize my country.”

“In Venezuela we are experiencing an extraordinary period in sports, we have one of the best baseball teams in the world, we have many things…so the government is pushing a lot for sports right now.”

“It's very important to have great results and a great championship” says Maldonado. “I don't feel under pressure because I can do very well. I think we pushed a lot this year to improve the car but we haven't developed the blown exhausts 100%, our car is very far away on this concept."

“Next year several things will change such as aerodynamics so I'm confident about that, Williams has always built great cars so I'm very confident.”

“Many months ago we started development with next year's car. I have been involved a lot and I am very happy to work with the team in the development of the new car which looks very good. It looks much better than this year's car and each of us has a lot of confidence in it."

Stefano Rifici