Vergne keeping non-F1 options open after losing Toro Rosso seat

The Frenchman's three-year stint in Red Bull's junior F1 team will come to end after the current campaign, when teenaged Formula 3 prodigy Max Verstappen will replace him.

Vergne reiterated he is still fully focused on securing his F1 future, but suggested that he would look at alternative categories if no F1 drives became available.

When asked if his focus was purely on F1, Vergne said: "There are so many drivers who wanted to focus on F1 and got nowhere.

"So I am not stupid - I have my eyes open I would say."

Fellow former STR driver Sebastien Buemi has successfully switched to sportscars with Toyota while becoming a reserve driver for Red Bull's F1 team.

Vergne said his present focus was continuing to race in F1 rather than consider becoming a reserve.

"I would really love to race," he added.

"It depends on the chance I will get to drive in a race, but at the moment my focus is on getting a race seat."

Vergne reckons his former STR team-mate Daniel Ricciardo's excellent form since graduating to Red Bull should remind F1 teams that he is potentially capable of similar feats if given the right opportunity.

When asked by AUTOSPORT how realistic he felt his chances of remaining in F1 were, Vergne replied: "It's difficult to say.

"If the key people in some teams trust me, and trust that I can make it [then I have a chance].

"Doing three years here [at Toro Rosso] makes me very strong.

"Daniel [Ricciardo] in a way is a good help for me because some teams expect world champion drivers, but maybe [the future] is not in world champion drivers, but in younger drivers who are really hungry and motivated, and that's what I am.

"When you look at my results compared to Daniel all of our career, I have the potential to be what he is."