Briton says there is no point in another FR3.5 or GP2 campaign
Thursday 15 January 2015 11:00, UK
Will Stevens is holding out hope Caterham or Marussia will return to the F1 grid in 2015 as he looks to continue his grand prix career.
The 23-year-old made his race debut with Caterham at the 2014 season finale in Abu Dhabi and sees no point in returning to a junior series such as GP2 or Formula Renault 3.5.
However, with 18 seats already taken on the grid, Stevens knows a race seat will only materalise if one of the sport's cash-strapped teams return.
“For sure, my number one target is to get a race seat and at the moment there are 18 seats and they are all gone,” Stevens told Sky Sports Online.
“So we are holding out for Marussia or Caterham to materialise and if they do I think we are in with a very good shout of being in contention. So for me there is not much point in doing World Series or GP2 again - I would be surprised if that happened as I have made the step into F1, I’ve shown that I am ready for the step. That is the target, so we are pushing hard as much as the teams are.”
Thus the Briton admits he may to have look at a reserve driver role to remain in the paddock in 2015 – although even those seats are quickly being filled.
“You need to look into all possibilities and at my age now I’ve done an F1 race and I know if I got a full season I could put good use to it,” he said.
“lt is hard to move away from Formula 1 at the moment, so if no teams are around then for sure the best thing in Formula 1 aside from that is a third driver role and to learn more and understand everything that is going on. So if I can’t get a race seat then I am sure that is one option we will look at.”
Stevens made his debut at a difficult time with Caterham returning to the grid thanks to a crowdfunding scheme after missing the previous two races, but says it was still a dream to drive in F1.
“That is what I set out in my career to achieve first, hopefully after that I’ll move onto a few wins and who knows what the future holds,” he said.
“But obviously it was a good weekend in Abu Dhabi for me to get my first opportunity and when you get an opportunity like that you need to take it with both hands and I did. Obviously, it was hard to jump in at the last race when everyone else has had a whole season to get to grips with the car, but my main priority was not to make any mistakes, keep chipping away and come qualy be close to Kamui [Kobayashi] – and that is what we did.
“The race itself was good, the biggest thing was getting used to the Pirelli tyres and managing them and knowing when to push and when not to push and every lap I was doing I was getting more and more comfortable with the pace that I needed to set and at the end of it I felt very good in the car.
“Obviously we had the two-day test afterwards and by the end of that I felt really comfortable. It would have been really nice to have the test before the race, but I felt the weekend served its purpose and I’m happy.”
The Sky Sports F1 Online team will be providing live commentary of all three winter tests, starting in Jerez on Sunday February 1, with live updates from trackside also on Sky Sports News HQ.
