Sergey Sirotkin has revealed he will now turn his attention to the possibility of a Friday role in formula one for this year.
The 20-year-old, who leapt to F1 prominence in 2013 when part of a proposed Sauber buyout deal, has more recently been racing in the feeder series GP2.
For 2016, he is moving from the Rapax team, where he finished the championship in third place last year, to the front-running outfit ART, replacing the reigning champion Stoffel Vandoorne.
Sirotkin says the title is his obvious goal for this season, but it is also known that he has been in talks with some F1 teams about a potential 2016 role.
"We have specific proposals from a number of teams," he revealed to the Russian publication Sportbox.
"And it is for a full reserve driver place, with outings on Fridays. But at the moment it is not at the stage where I can engage in discussion about it.
"Now the most important thing was to announce the agreement with ART, so that it will be easier to turn the attention a little to formula one," Sirotkin added.
Asked if he can drop a hint about the identity of the F1 teams he might be in talks with, he answered: "It is not a Mercedes or Ferrari, but a very good team.
"What I would like is to make my debut as a fully-fledged race driver in 2017," he added.