Timo Glock has admitted there is a tiny chance he will not return to the cockpit of a Virgin car in 2011.
When the German joined Toyota in 2008, he said he wanted to be challenging for the world championship in three years.
Instead, the Japanese carmaker pulled out of F1 and Glock rescued his career by switching to Virgin, a new British team that finished its debut season in last place.
It was rumoured that Glock, 28, eyed Vitaly Petrov’s 2011 seat at Renault, but the Russian rookie looks set to renew his deal, while Glock already has a contract for next year with Virgin.
Therefore, staying at Virgin in 2011 "is 99.9 per cent certain", he confirmed to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.
But Glock said he hasn’t given up on dreaming of race wins and titles.
"If you have the opportunity to go to Red Bull or McLaren, then you’d have to go for it. From a sporting perspective you are open to new possibilities.
"It is definitely still my goal to go for the world championship," he added.
Glock insisted that even though it has come early in his countryman’s young career, he is happy for new world champion Sebastian Vettel.
"You cannot begrudge him," said the German. "He has done a great job this year, maybe one or two errors. But it’s the same for everyone."
In contrast, Glock recorded zero points, 9 DNFs and a best finish of just 14th.
"In the winter we lost too much time because some basic things did not work," he said, "but you can’t expect it all to fall into place right away for a new team with a blank sheet of paper."