Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly says that he still has his sights firmly set on a Formula 1 seat in the near future.
The 21-year-old French driver missed out on a chance of securing a ride at Toro Rosso this season. Despite paddock speculation, the team opted to keep Daniil Kvyat in the line-up for another season alongside Carlos Sainz. Gasly will instead spend a season competing in Japan's Super Formula series with Team Mugen.
The 2016 GP2 champion said he regretted that the chance to make his Formula 1 début hadn't come through. However, he remains hopeful of a break in 2018.
"At the moment I'm 21, I'm young," he said. "Stoffel is 25 now, and he still got his chance in Formula 1.
"Everyone says age is only a number. To get in Formula 1 you have to show you deserve to be there, so the performance should be the only criteria.
"As long as I'm competitive, I think the chances will be there," he told Motorsport.com this week. "But at the moment the full focus is on making it happen for 2018, and then we will see what happens."
"I have a pretty good experience of many different cars, and so far I've always finished in the top three in every series I've done.
"It didn't happen this year but hopefully there will be an opportunity next season."
Gasly added that he regretted the confusion caused by comments he made to the media last year which appeared to suggest he was going to replace Kvyat.
"I never said I would replace Daniil, just that I was hoping it was true," he insisted. "You always want to be in Formula 1, so I really hoped it was true.
"I learned that I need to be more careful with the media," he added. "I'm not stupid, I will not say something if it was not true."
Gasly said that there had been no lasting rift with Red Bull motorsport consultant Dr Helmet Marko over the misunderstanding.
"For me it was always clear in my mind that the only person in Red Bull who could make this decision is Helmut," he said. "Helmut called me to clarify the situation, but then everything came back to normal."
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