Kvyat has looked out of shape since being demoted from Red Bull to Toro Rosso four races into the 2016 season and scored just two points after Russia to teammate Carlos Sainz's 26.

While Red Bull has already confirmed it will keep Sainz at Toro Rosso for next year, the other seat is between Kvyat and Gasly, the latter currently tied for the points lead in GP2.

Regarding his prospects for getting the 2017 seat over Kvyat, Gasly told Motorsport.com: "I haven’t really spoken about it with Helmut [Marko], but it's definitely my goal to get to Toro Rosso.

"I need to see how it goes, for sure I will do my best to get this seat.

"Of course I know that at the moment Daniil is not in an easy position, but in this world you need to just think about yourself.

"This is what I’m doing at the moment. I will try everything to make it happen."

Chaotic season

With four rounds remaining in the GP2 season, Gasly shares the points lead with Renault test driver Sergey Sirotkin, while Raffaele Marciello, Gasly's teammate Antonio Giovinazzi and Oliver Rowland are all within 14 points of the top spot.

Six different drivers have taken turns leading the standings - and Gasly reckons nobody will be able to break away from the pack in the remaining rounds.

"We’re in a good position, but looking at this season it’s really close between 10 or so drivers," said the Frenchman. It’s difficult to make a big gap.

"It’s definitely not going to be like Stoffel [Vandoorne, in 2015], even if I wish I could do that!

"It will be important to be consistent, we lost a lot of points at the beginning of the year in some races – we’re looking pretty good, important to score points all the time and not make any mistakes.

"I don’t really know why [there's no runaway leader], but when you look at everyone, they’ve had bad races, which has made the championship really tight."

Interview by Jamie Klein