Narain Karthikeyan is still hopeful of finding a seat for 2012 because he says he is getting more corporate interest following the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.

12431 - Karthikeyan still hopes for seat

Having returned to race for HRT in 2011, Karthikeyan was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo from the British Grand Prix onwards, only returning for his home race in Delhi. Ricciardo has since been named a Toro Rosso driver for 2012 and only two seats remain available; one at Williams and one at HRT.

Although a race seat would appear unlikely with Rubens Barrichello, Adrian Sutil, Bruno Senna, Vitaly Petrov, Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastian Buemi all available, Karthikeyan insists options are still open for him.

"Things have been a little slow to be honest, with the Christmas and New Year break," Karthikeyan is quoted by the Press Trust of India. "But with the holiday season now behind us we should be able to go ahead with our discussions as nothing has been finalised yet."

"Personally, I have seen a lot of positive responses after the (inaugural Indian) GP as corporate houses and people in general are more aware of what it (F1) brings to the table. We have to be patient though - India is in its motor sport infancy and you just can't expect it to skip tens of years in progression because we hosted an F1 race."