Despite completing just one test with the Spyker team,
GP2 frontrunner Roldan Rodriguez reckons that he is deserving of a place among motorsport's elite next season.
The Spaniard, who only graduated to
GP2 this season and is expected to remain with the Minardi Piquet Sports team in 2008, admits that he has one eye on the evolving situation at Spyker, which confirmed during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend that it had been formally acquired by Vijay Mallya and Michiel Mol. Rodriguez signed a testing deal with Spyker last month.
Although nothing has been confirmed, Rodriguez says he expects to be out with the Silverstone-based team again soon - maybe starting with a shakedown at
Silverstone next week - and hopes to join it at the final round of the season, in Brazil, in ten days time.
"I am going to see how they work, and I will be watching closely to learn and get to know the team from inside," he told the Spanish media, "I believe that I deserve to be one of the 24 drivers [in F1] next year, and I only want to get behind the wheel and test as soon as possible.
Rodriguez admitted that the jump from
GP2 to F1 was a large one, but insisted that his year in the feeder series had served him well.
"I know what an F1 team seeks," he said, "A professional pilot, prepared and quick. I am the right age and this is the best moment for me to move up.
"There were bad and good things in GP2, but I think I competed very well and ended the year with a large quantity of points. Different things, such as a lack of experience, mistakes by the team and bad luck meant that I did not get the number of points that perhaps I should have, but I have learned from that and think that I showed my ability as a driver."