“I did everything that depended on me. Now it’s the sponsors turn to decide. Everything will be sorted out shortly. As an award for winning Formula Renault I got a chance for a test-drive with Renault F1,” Mikhail Aleshin said.

The 23-year-old will sit behind the wheel of a Formula 1 vehicle as soon as mid-November and he believes there is a chance he might be selected by one of the teams.

“We’re looking for necessary funds now. My father and I have created a support program for young drivers, called Our Formula. The partners, who helped us to create it are Gazprom-Neft, Gazprombank and tire brand Cordiant. Only thanks to them we have achieved such good results. Except for me, there are seven other young drivers in the program. They all take part in karting events, but we are preparing to transfer the senior of them to junior Formulas soon. The motto of the program is "From karting to Formula 1". It’s designed for many years and nothing of a kind has been launched in Russia,” the driver added.

Vitaly Petrov became the first ever Russian in Formula 1, making his Renault debut at the start of the 2010 season. He has so far earned 19 points in his 16 races, with a fifth place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix being his best result.