Nasr wants Sauber to prove he should stay

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Felipe Nasr wants to see signs from Sauber that the team will provide him with a strong platform to prove his ability next season.

The Brazilian has been at Sauber since the start of 2015 and impressed at the start of his rookie season with a fifth place in Australia and eighth in China in his opening three races. A sixth place also followed in Russia, but this season has seen Sauber fail to score a point as it struggles with a lack of performance.

Part of the problem has been the financial difficulty the team has been in, but with new investment expected to be finalised over the coming weeks, Nasr says he wants to see proof there is a bright future when thinking of his F1 plans.

“I need to see what I want before [I decide]," Nasr said. "If I want to stay, if I can clearly see that the team have something to believe in.

"I do have faith in the team and I believe even from last year. I had a really good start to the season - my first season in Formula One - and I know the difficult times they had but it’s all related to one thing which is the development the financial situation we had.

"We struggled but as I said from my side I still have faith here, if it can gather things together it can be a place that I can perform as well."

And Nasr believes he has already proven to Sauber he should be retained, even if the team hasn't been fighting for points.

“I have been showing the little things that I can do like I did [at Silverstone] in the race like setting the fastest lap in the race [at one stage], fighting with a Williams ... The last race in Austria we were already in the top ten and in Baku as well fighting with a McLaren. So all I can do as a driver I show you but that is all I can talk about.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.