Christian Klien has admitted he is pessimistic about his formula one career.
After almost 50 races with Jaguar and Red Bull, the now 28-year-old fell into BMW and Honda test duties but last year bounced back onto the grid with a few outings at HRT.
For 2011, however, Austrian Klien could not raise enough sponsorship and so he has signed on with the Aston Martin Le Mans team.
"It has become more difficult each year," he told Kleine Zeitung newspaper when asked about the role of driver sponsorship in formula one.
He referred to the $30 million brought to Williams by Pastor Maldonado this year and surmised that "Such sums are impossible for an Austrian."
"Even if you can get that budget for a year," added Klien, "what do you do after that? At some point it’s no longer possible. Formula one has changed a lot."
"You can never say never, but right now I don’t see the possibility," he said.
Klien admits he is eyeing a future switch to the DTM series.
"With three manufacturers, the series is quite interesting," he said, admitting that his links with the incoming BMW could help him.
"There is still contact. DTM would be fun," he concluded.