“I'm not considering that (IndyCar switch) yet. It's interesting, but - for now - I still think that I can be in F1,” said De la Rosa in a recent interview with Spanish newspaper Marca.
While revealing his stubbornness to find a race seat for the 2011 F1 season, the Spanish driver admitted the chances are slimmer than they look at first glance. Even though the latest FIA entry list for 2011 revealed 10 vacancies for next season (in the meantime, the number turned to 9, after Williams confirmed Pastor Maldonado) De la Rosa believes there are only a few actual spots he can hope for, the other ones being reserved for drivers with huge sponsorship backing.
“Most of them are already reserved for drivers that come with a sponsor,” added the former McLaren test driver. “That's my handicap, that I haven't got a sponsor. But I'm not giving up. I'm stubborn and I want to race. If in the end I have to be a reserve or a tester, I will, but first I will try everything (to race).”
In the short period of time since he parted ways with the BMW Sauber-Ferrari outfit, the 39-year old racer secured a testing deal with F1's new official tire maker Pirelli, getting to drive a few hundreds of kilometers at the wheel of Toyota's TF109 racer.
Recently, the prospect of seeing De la Rosa inside the cockpit of a HRT F1-built car next season have been slammed by the very owner of the Spanish team, who told the media that as much as he'd want to see his countryman drive for him next year, “without money, there is no place for him.”
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