Pastor Maldonado set to be replaced at Renault F1 Team by Kevin Magnussen

KEVIN Magnussen is poised to replace Pastor Maldonado at Renault for the 2016 Formula 1 season.

The team — then known as Lotus prior to Renault’s buyout in December — announced four months ago that Maldonado would be staying on.

But the Venezuelan, reputed to pay almost £20m for his seat, is believed by Sky Sports to have been ousted after backing from his sponsors dried up.

Renault, who will unveil their driver line-up as well as their new car at a media event next week in Paris, have refused to confirm or deny speculation that Maldonado has been dropped.

Magnussen was released by McLaren at the end of last year but is now set to partner English rookie Jolyon Palmer in 2016.

Reports first surfaced earlier this month that Magnussen had been at the team’s Enstone base for two days of talks with senior management.

The highly-rated Dane drove for McLaren in 2014, scoring a podium finish on his debut, but was subsequently sidelined when Fernando Alonso returned to Woking to partner Jenson Button.

Despite winning the 2012 Spanish GP, Maldonado’s five-year F1 career has been defined by controversy and collisions.

Prior to leaving the Williams team for Lotus two years ago, he accused the Grove outfit of sabotaging his car ahead of the 2013 US GP and, unable to shrug off the tag of being a ‘pay driver’, a website was launched to keep a timetable of his many crashes, followed by a sequel site tracking his many penalties.

Manor are the only other team still yet to confirm the identity of their driver line-up for the new campaign with pre-season testing commencing on February 22 in Spain.