Pastor Maldonado will remain at Lotus next season, team boss Gerard Lopez has confirmed.
The Venezualen joined the team at the beginning of the year after moving from Williams. He is yet to score a single point for the team.
Lopez didn’t confirm whether Romain Grosjean – who has hinted that he wishes to leave the team – will line-up alongside Maldonado.
“I don’t want to give too much away, but as it’s half way through the season, I can confirm 50% of our driver line-up for 2015 as Pastor is with us for next year,” confirmed Lopez.
“Despite the difficulties we’ve had so far this season, he recognises our true potential as a team and we recognise his true potential as a driver. We will achieve great things together.”
Lopez is confident of a better season in 2015 when the team is expected to switch to Mercedes power and build on the lessons that have been learnt this year.
“We do have some great things to come, but it’s important that the team is not stopping developing this year’s car as there is still a lot we can learn; we are going to fight hard for every point we can achieve this year. Looking forward, we have been able to take steps to ensure that 2014’s lessons have been learnt and we get back to where we want to be in 2015 – fighting for podiums.
“When we look at the team’s recent history we can see what is possible. In 2011 our car followed a unique development path with the forward facing exhausts. This concept didn’t give us the results we wanted but look how we bounced back in 2012 and 2013! Our 2014 car hasn’t given us the results we’ve wanted, so watch this space in 2015 and beyond!”
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