Ousted Russian driver Vitaly Petrov still appears to be confident of securing some sort of race seat somewhere for the forthcoming 2012 Formula One season, despite this year's grid appearing to be almost completely filled up.
Petrov lost his drive with the Lotus (née Renault) team at the end of the 2011 season, after two years with the team.
The current 2012 grid appears to be virtually full, with only the second HRT seat officially vacant.
However, Petrov has recently been linked with the Caterham seat currently occupied by Italian driver Jarno Trulli.
And speaking on Wednesday, Petrov suggested that he is still hopeful of finding a full race drive for the forthcoming season, despite remaining guarded on the details of his plans.
"If I say something it will be turned into lots of stories," Petrov was quoted as saying by Autosport at Pirelli's 2012 tyre launch party.
"But please wait a little bit, another week. I want to say something but I can't say at the moment."
He added: "I want to stay in F1 because if I lose one year then it will be very difficult to come back and to take some places for 2013. So it is important to stay."
Petrov also admitted that his end-of-season rant about the quality of the Renault team's developments in 2011 may well have had an impact on him being dropped.
The Russian made headlines after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix when he was quoted as having blamed the team for his lack of results over the second half of the season.
"I think it was part of it," he muttered regarding his rant, "I think I understand I should not talk about the team like this, but what is done is done and I don't need to be angry about what happened.
"Already it is the new year, it is finished so I am fully ready for next year."
One further option for Petrov is a role as test driver for the Pirelli company, with the Russian having been a guest of the tyre maker at their 2012 product launch.
"We will see how it goes," Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembrey told Autosport about the link with Petrov.
"There is always a lot of tyre development work to do, and we are eager to have a driver who has experience of racing from the previous year."
Should he join the Pirelli development programme, he would be partnered by former Virgin driver Lucas di Grassi, who joined Pirelli last year.
However, any new signing by Pirelli appears dependant on them solving their test car issues, with their old 2009-spec Toyota car having been mothballed.
The company are still looking for an amicable solution with F1 teams over securing a more up-to-date chassis to use, while ensuring such a deal did not lead to the company developing tyres that favoured a specific car.
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