Merhi not ruling out F1 role yet

The Spaniard raced with the team in F1 last year, and was one of the candidates to race alongside Pascal Wehrlein this year until the British squad signed Indonesian Haryanto.

Merhi is now without a drive for 2016, but insists he could still stay in F1 in some capacity.

"I'm not ruling out anything," Merhi told Spanish radio Cope.

"To be a racing driver this year is impossible unless something happens, but we could still be there in some form, so we'll see if there's a way to stay and if it's interesting."

Merhi said he had been given assurances that he had a good chance of racing for Manor this year until Haryanto, who is backed by Indonesia, secured the drive.

"They were waiting for him because he was saying he was bringing a lot of money, and in the end it turned out to be true - and he has a country paying for the drive.

"And if you have a country paying for it, then it's hard to fight against it."

Faced with a year on the sidelines in F1, the 24-year-old has ruled out racing in a category like GT, however, and says he would prefer to stay at home than race in a series he does not enjoy.

When asked what his goals for the year were, he said: "To try to race in something I like because I've been in Formula 1, and racing for the sake of racing is something that doesn't motivate me... I'm not interested.

"I prefer to do something I like, otherwise I prefer to stay home and do other things because doing GTs or something like that is not what I've prepared for."