Paffett still hopeful on Prodrive plans

The McLaren tester had pinned his hopes of becoming an F1 race driver with Prodrive this year, but his ambitions were dashed when Prodrive's plans faltered on the back of a legal challenge from Williams over customer cars.

But with Prodrive still considering their options to try and get on the grid in 2009, Paffett admits he is keeping his fingers crossed that he will still get the chance to become an F1 driver.

"I have still got the links with McLaren and Prodrive and, as long as they can get the (customer car) situation sorted out, and the link with McLaren is still there and viable, then there has to be a very good chance again," Paffett told autosport.com. "And that is what we have got to look for.

"But at the moment there is no confirmation of an entry, so I have to concentrate on what we are doing now, and do the best for the team in getting the new car ready.

"Myself and Pedro (de la Rosa), along with Lewis (Hamilton) and Fernando (Alonso), did a great job in getting the car to where it was last year, and I think we need to try a bit harder to make the car a bit better this season."

Paffett admits that he was very disappointed when Prodrive had to pull the plug on their operation for 2008.

"It was a massive disappointment," he said. "I can't deny it wasn't. The Prodrive team were looking fantastic, the links with McLaren were perfect for me and I feel I had a very good chance of getting one of the seats there. It certainly was my best chance yet to get into an F1 car.

"Then, with Fernando leaving the team there was a seat free (at McLaren) and I for sure had a shot at getting in that seat too, as Pedro did. We were both looking at doing that.

"I had some testing at the end of last year which went very well. I hadn't been in the car for just under a year, but I got back in and was on the pace pretty much straight away and did some very good testing. So I gave myself the best chance I could.

"The team made the decision that they felt is right, and it was up to them, but for sure there was a hint of disappointment there. That was a bit of a longer shot than Prodrive, but still there was a chance there and if there is a chance and you don't get it then certainly there is some disappointment."

Paffett added that he hopes to get more testing in 2008 than he did last year, having already been pencilled in for some running this month.