Giancarlo Fisichella was likely to remain as Ferrari's reserve driver this season despite grid spots still up for the grabs for the Formula One campaign, the Italian said today.

The 37-year-old, who joined Ferrari from Force India last season to stand in for the injured Felipe Massa, had been linked in the media with another move given Renault and new teams US F1 and Campos are still to complete their driver lineups.

"It's better to stay here as the third driver," Fisichella told Reuters at the launch of Ferrari's car for the new season, which starts in Bahrain on March 14.

Sauber had been a potential destination for the Italian but the team have filled their cars with Japan's Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa of Spain.

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali said this month that Fisichella, who signed on last season as Ferrari's reserve driver for this year, was free to leave if he wanted to.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.