Esteban Ocon has spoken out for the first time after confirming his exit from the Haas F1 team.
Speculation over the Frenchman's future has been rife for several weeks, with Haas known to be evaluating a handful of contenders for a 2027 F1 seat.
In the build-up to the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang, the team confirmed that Ocon would exit at the end of the 2026 campaign.
It will bring his two-year stretch with the team to an end, putting doubt over his future on the grid with limited spaces available for the 2027 season.
As he begins to close out his ninth full season in F1, he admitted it is irritating to be placed in such a position.
"It is frustrating because it's not really the way it should be," Ocon told media including RacingNews365.
"I'm not going to go into detail about what happens in the past. I'm looking ahead, I'm looking at the future.
"That's what's important, but I deserve to be here. I put [in] the hard work.
"We have benefited from finding out all these issues very early, since I joined the team, and it has been very good for everyone.
"I don't think I deserve to have this for the future.
"But there are opportunities all the time in F1, and that's what I'm looking at, looking at the future, not the past."
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Ocon labels F1 as priority in 2027 plans
Outside of Haas, only four seats have not yet been confirmed, including two at Mercedes, where George Russell and Kimi Antonelli are heavily expected to be retained.
Racing Bulls has not yet declared its 2027 line-up, but the team's options are limited to its current drivers and Red Bull junior talent.
It means that Ocon will likely have to take on a third driver role next year in order to retain his links in F1.
"My focus is on F1, that is clear," he said. "That's where I belong, that's where I want to be. I'm not going to look elsewhere, that's very clear.
"But you never know what can happen in F1. As you guys know, things move every two seconds, so I'm still working on trying to find a solution for next year.
"You guys will be aware as soon as we have more news. Our focus is that and to do well on track.
"We've done pretty well at the last races, and for me, that's the best way to show that I still deserve to be in F1.
"Of course, I need the car that follows, which we didn't have for many, many races, including last year.
"If we have that, it should work, as it did in Baku, as it did in Madrid. We'll see."
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Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the Azerbaijan GP but also look ahead to F1's return this weekend to Malaysia! Rumours linking Christian Horner with a return to the sport is a major talking point.
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