Palmer rejected Caterham F1 chance

Palmer, who wrapped up the GP2 drivers' title with a round to spare at Sochi last time out, says he was contacted by troubled squad about racing at this weekend's Yas Marina finale, but decided against taking up the opportunity to drive.

Formula Renault 3.5 race winner Will Stevens is partnering Kamui Kobayashi instead.

"They contacted us, but I've got a GP2 race to do so we weren't particularly interested," said Palmer, who will instead make his F1 debut in Tuesday's post-race test for Force India.

"I think there's more than a slightly messy situation there. We wanted to focus on GP2 and winning the teams' title for DAMS."

Palmer says he is still pushing for a race seat in F1 next season, despite dwindling options, so would consider racing for Caterham or Marussia if those teams return to the grid full-time in 2015.

"It depends what happens over the winter. I think there's so many question marks over those teams at the moment that clearly there's a lot of risk involved in running with them," he added.

"Maybe they get bought out by huge backers who have the resources to move them up the grid, in which case it would be a good opportunity, but it doesn't look likely.

"I'm not sure either will be here, let alone one.

"As and when something happens we'll consider it, but I want to be in the most competitive car possible."