Buurman still aiming at F1 future

The former GP2 driver has been one of the stars of the football-themed single-seater series, having won six times during Superleague's first three seasons. In 2008 and '09 he was able to dovetail his Superleague campaigns with GP2 programmes, but this year he did not race in any of the traditional F1 feeder series.

"It was a bit difficult this year and I struggled for budget to do GP2, so I did Superleague - which is quite a good alternative," Buurman told AUTOSPORT. "They're good cars with a lot of power.

"We've got to see [about 2011]. So far we've just been focusing on this test. Obviously it's my first test and we have to see what happens after this, but I think this is going to be a real positive for whatever I do after this."

The 23-year-old Dutchman felt that a mechanical problem had stopped him showing what he could really do during his Force India run.

"I think the team was pretty pleased. We had a problem where I stopped on-track, and it was the run before my last run, which was a shame because obviously the last run is when the track's at its best, you put new tyres on and you really push for a time," said Buurman, who ended up 10th on the timesheets.

"I think it would have been easily top six, even if I only did a lap like I had in the afternoon - considering that the temperature dropped, the tyres and a couple of other factors. But that's racing."

He said his first taste of F1 performance had been everything that he hoped it would be.

"I always knew that I wanted to be a racing driver and once you know what F1 means that you always want to be in F1," said Buurman. "So to finally drive the car is awesome, of course. It was a really awesome day.

"It didn't go completely to plan, which was a shame. But still the first day in the car was amazing.

"Everyone tells you it's so much better than GP2 and everything else, but you don't know it until you've done it and it's really a lot better than anything else and a lot more than you expect."