Winkelhock not expecting more races

Winkelhock, son of 1980s F1 driver Manfred, is committed to race for Spyker team principal Colin Kolles's DTM squad for the rest of the year.

The F1 team are talking to a number of other drivers to complete the season following the sacking of Christijan Albers in the wake of the British Grand Prix.

"At the moment it is just for this race," Winkelhock told autosport.com at the Nurburgring. "I will finish the DTM season with Colin Kolles. But about F1 I don't know.

"I will be at all the F1 races until the end of the season, but I don't know about driving. For this race I don't have to pay, but to finish the season I would have to find some money and it's not easy to find."

Honda test driver Christian Klien appears to be the favourite to land the drive, but former Jordan driver Narain Karthikeyan is also believed to be in contention.

Speculation linking drivers from junior categories is believed to be wide of the mark because of the issue of gaining a superlicence.

Winkelhock endured a tough first day as a Grand Prix driver on Friday. He propped up the time sheets in both free practice sessions, ending up 0.7 seconds off teammate Adrian Sutil in both.

He spun in the first session, but recovered to continue lapping, then spun off into the gravel in the afternoon.

"Actually, it was not too bad," Winkelhock said. "Last weekend I had a DTM race and the driving style is completely different. The other thing is I know the track quite well, but I don't know the car. I drove it for two hours three months ago at Paul Ricard.

"I was getting better step by step. Unfortunately in the second session I was pushing too much and spun into the gravel.

"But at the end of the day I think it was not too bad. On my quickest lap I had to pass Mark Webber on the outside and lost three or four tenths.

"So I think I'm four or five tenths off Adrian Sutil, who has been developing the car. Sutil is doing a good job and comparing me with Albers, he was half a second off him."

Winkelhock's father made 46 GP starts for ATS and RAM between 1982-85, but died racing a Kremer Porsche at Mosport in '85. His brother Joachim Winkelhock also made it to F1, but failed to qualify for seven races with the AGS team in 1989.

But Markus said that becoming the third member of his family to make it to F1 will not be on his mind this weekend.

"I don't think about that," he said. "I just get in the car and do my job. I don't think emotionally.

"Maybe after the weekend, I don't know, but here at the race weekend I have no time for that."