American driver Alexander Rossi thinks he is in a strong position to turn his current Manor drive into a full-time one for the 2016 season.
Before the Singapore Grand Prix it was confirmed Rossi would replace Roberto Merhi at the five of the final seven races of the season, allowing him to complete his commitments in the GP2 series, making him the first American on the F1 grid since Scott Speed in 2007. Earlier this year Rossi was linked with a seat at American outfit Haas F1, which will join the grid next year, but his lack of experience has counted against him.
However, Rossi is confident he has a good chance of turning his current situation into a permanent drive with Manor, which faces the exciting prospect of a switch to Mercedes power next season.
"I'm obviously quite keen to be in a full-time seat next year, which is apparent," Rossi said. "The position that I'm in with the team at the moment is good and we're looking to put that all together for next year."
Rossi admits the performance deficit of Manor, which is still running a 2014 chassis and year-old Ferrari spec engine, means he can only focus on beating team-mate Will Stevens in his final three races, as he did in Singapore and Japan.
"With the current situation of the performance difference of the cars its very clear that the objective just needs to be continuing what we've done in the first two. On both of those weekends we had quite a disrupted Friday for the whole team so I think if we have a strong Friday, the Sunday result can be even more positive."