Robert Kubica targeted a racing return to F1 in 2018 but missed out and settled for a reserve and development role with Williams. The desire to race still burns bright, however, and talks are underway about making that happen next year…

We’ve reached the point in the season where a greater focus is put on who will drive where in 2019, with at least one seat available at each of the 10 teams on the grid.

Drivers and teams are keen to get deals sorted before the summer break, particularly as traditionally, options on drivers for the following year tend to expire in September.

Kubica is part of the driver merry-go-around for 2019 and it has emerged his management have started discussions with teams about a race seat.

When asked about his future, Kubica said: “My status and my position doesn’t change honestly since the end of last year. Of course, now there will be a lot of talks although I’m staying away from them.

“The top guys, they have to first find the seats so fortunately you have other topics to write than about me. My target will be to race next year but this hasn’t changed since the end of last year - so we will see.”

Kubica, who drove in Friday practice in Austria for Williams, did not find out what his F1 future would be until earlier this year, ultimately losing a head-to-head shoot-out with Sergey Sirotkin for the one vacant F1 race seat at Williams.

The Pole says there are race seat options for him beyond Williams but concedes that realistically, there are only a handful of genuine possibilities.

“There was only one seat free, which was Williams,” he said. “Now there’s more seats, more teams that might change the drivers or not.

“So it’s not that because we are sitting here I am just targeting to be on the grid with Williams.