Giedo van der Garde admits his Formula 1 future looks bleak and has been concentrating on finding future rides in either the World Endurance Championship or the DTM Series.
The Dutchman went through the courts in Australia to try and force the Sauber F1 Team to honour the contract they had signed with him to give him a race seat in 2015 having spent last year as the team’s test driver, but a multi-million pound out of court settlement saw van der Garde walk away from the team at the eleventh hour.
Although he has not totally given up on returning to a race seat in Formula 1, van der Garde revealed to Motorsport.com that he had other series’ in mind to race in next year, and was happy to get so much positive feedback from people around the paddocks.
“You never ever know what’s happening in F1, but at the moment my targets are DTM or WEC for next year,” said van der Garde. “For this year it’s already tough to jump in somewhere, because we were very late with everything. So I’m looking around a bit.”
“Of course you never give up, you always keep a little bit of hope, but after what happened, you are a little bit fed up with everything, in the beginning especially.
“But the more you think about it, the more it gives you a bit of a relief. Of course it’s always what you wanted, and there’s still a little bit in me that says ‘maybe’. We’ll see.
“I got very positive feedback, from teams, team bosses and drivers even. So I’m quite happy with that. Now it’s a bit more calm and relaxed and I’m looking to get a nice drive for next year.”