Sirotkin: F1 return a long-term target

Sergey Sirotkin says that returning to Formula 1 is on his agenda, but admits that it is a long-term goal. The Russian spent the 2018 season at Williams before being axed in favour of Robert Kubica.

Sirotkin struggled throughout the year in a difficult FW41 car that was planted at the rear of the grid. The Russian ended the year bottom of the drivers' standings with just one point to his name which was granted following a Romain Grosjean disqualification in Italy.

Sirotkin's plans for 2019 involve the World Endurance Championship with SMP Racing, however his firm goal is to make it back to F1: "The main target which is probably more of a long-term target now is obviously to come back to the F1 grid,” he said.

“It’s still too early to say how easy or how possible that is to achieve but that’s the medium-to-long term target. Here for now all I know is I will have to do a few races in WEC in LMP1 with the SMP team, probably one which is next month already in the USA so I will have something to drive.

“Then depending on other opportunities and other possible races this probably can be shorter or wider or more diverse. I’m still in quite early points of discussions so it’s not like I know right here right now what I’m doing.”

The Russian also admitted that Formula E is an option for the future, as he will test with Mahindra at the Marrakech rookie test next week.

“Just before the new year I got a sudden phone call from the team to take part, which was one of the interesting directions for me after F1 so I was happy to take it.”

“To be honest it’s my first day here where I’ve met the team and the people so I’m kind of trying to relate what exactly what the goals of the test are and what the team wants me to do. For the next few days it’s Formula E, which again will be interesting to see what it is because long-term it’s something interesting.”