Maldonado exit ends Williams PDVSA deal

Williams has confirmed that the departure of Pastor Maldonado will mark the end of its tie-up with the Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.

The company has backed Maldonado throughout his career to date, with the existing deal with Williams still having two years to run.

With Maldonado having elected to explore options elsewhere, Williams has now agreed a deal with PDVSA to end its deal early, with team deputy principal Claire Williams confirming the split.

"It [the branding] won't be on the car for next year," she told Reuters. "There is no [further] connection with PDVSA as obviously Pastor is now leaving the team.

"We wish Pastor well in his new challenge and we have to see where he ends up next year, but the Williams team won't have a connection to Venezuela next year.

"I think when our numbers come out next year, people will see what has actually gone on behind the scenes with this whole arrangement."

Williams added that the team was now set to approach Brazilian sponsors for next year having brought in Felipe Massa as Maldonado's replacement.

"I think Brazil is one of the sport's biggest markets, so it's really up to us to go out and commercialise Felipe as our driver," she said. "We've been operating and looking for sponsorship in the Brazilian market for a long time now, we've had great Brazilian partners in the past. So we will be going out to Brazil to see what we can do out there."