Pastor Maldonado is looking for history to repeat itself when he takes part in this weekend’s race in the principality.

The Venezuelan, who has yet to register a point for the Enstone-based Lotus team, has happy memories of the famous circuit, having won there as a GP2 driver in 2007 and 2009.

“Monaco was always my favourite track when I was watching Formula 1 on TV as a kid,” said Maldonado.

“Then the first time I went to a Grand Prix was also Monaco, in 2003, which was my first year in Formula Renault.

“Juan Pablo Montoya won and it was amazing to see how close they were to the wall and how quick the cars were, because they had V10 engines then.

“Another good Monaco memory for me is winning in GP2 in 2007 and 2009.”

Maldonado is hoping to banish memories of the Spanish GP, where a collision with teammate Romain Grosjean prematurely ended his race.

He added: “Our luck hasn’t been great, but this is racing. With the damaged rear wing endplate I suffered early in the race, we lost some downforce for sure.

“It was a very little touch. It happened but we move on, it’s all part of racing. We have a car that has a lot of potential and we are fighting ever higher in the field.

“We have a good engine and the tyres are lasting longer and that makes us confident that we can get some good results in the near future. We need to stay strong and as soon as the bad luck passes it will be good fun.”

Deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi added: “We need to keep improving the level of performance.

“We are much more competitive than last year – of course we have the new engine.

“The car’s performance is very solid and we have big expectations for Monaco and indeed for the upcoming races.”