British-Korean Formula 2 driver Jack Aitken says that he hopes to stay in the championship in 2019, in what would be his second season of competition.
It's part of the 22-year-old's long-term hopes of catching the eye of a Formula 1 team principal and earning himself a promotion to the Grand Prix grid in future.
Aitken is currently driving for the Renault F1-affiliated ART squad. But while his team mate and compatriot George Russell is leading the standings and strongly linked to a F1 drive next year, Aitken is having a more torrid time of it.
"Yes, mixed - a bit up and down," he acknowledged. "We definitely have had our fair share of bad luck.
"We’ve had some really good highlights like nearly qualifying on pole position in Hungary and being strong at testing with one-lap pace.
"We’ve had some good results especially in the first few races, a podium after stalling in Baku, a Sprint race win in Barcelona and we were strong with pace in Monaco before issues prevented us from showing what we can do.
“On the flip side we have struggled on the mechanical side with problems affecting us and robbing points combined with some bad luck.
"Without that we should be fighting for the top five but we’ve still got plenty of time," he added.
Instead, he's currently in tenth place in the drivers championship, and over a hundred points off his team mate with only four race weekends remaining.
"At this stage I’m not really thinking about the championship," Aitken told Crash.net this week.
"I’ve been in this situation before in championships and I think the key is just to take it session by session and race by race," he said. "Not disregard the championship, because the result matters. But it’s better to just focus on the next thing and just really take it step by step."
Currently Renault F1's official third and reserve driver, Aitken agreed that his best hope of eventually making it into Formula 1 was to stay in F2 for a second year and go after the title with all guns blazing.
"I expect to be around here in some form or another. If not I’ll be pretty sad," he said. "There’s always a small chance, a voice in my head saying I’d like to be in an F1 seat but I think that’s more the child in me wanting to have a go.
"Obviously there’s a lot of talk around F1 at the moment with seats changing hands and what not, but I put my faith in Renault," he added. "F2 is the most likely option at the moment but I don’t know - I’m leaving it to Renault.
"If they don’t think I’m ready then probably they’ve got good reasons to say that. They know me well and I know them well and I think the trust is pretty good.
"Whatever they say to me about next year, if it’s another year in F2 then I’m happy to do that and learn as much as possible.
"Without Renault it’s simple, I wouldn’t be here. I think that’s the case for a lot of drivers. It’s no secret that it takes a lot of investment to compete in these series and it’s not something I can do by myself.
"It’s very hard to predict," he replied when asked if he thought F1 was a realistic destination for him in the future. "I can’t really predict my own future in F1 any more than anyone else.
"As we’ve seen this year and in previous seasons it often depends on one guy who’s setting off a domino effect.
"For sure I keep abreast of it, more just because I do anyway and it’s interesting. But to try and control on it or act upon it, it’s very difficult."
Aitken took part in the official Formula 1 in-season test in May at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. However, he says that he doesn't currently have any expectation of taking the wheel of the R.S.18 in any of the remaining free practice 1 sessions this season.
"At the moment nothing is planned but I’ll cross my fingers and just wait and see," he said. "Nothing is completely off the cards and like I say they will judge it as they see it.
"They are not going to say absolutely not for the rest of the year, but likewise it’s not set in stone that I will."
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