Rio Haryanto - Courtesy of Manor Racing

Indonesia’s surviving rookie Rio Haryanto still has a shot in the Formula One by racing this weekend’s German Grand Prix at the historic and unique Hockenheimring circuit.

He prefers to seize the moment by concentrating on the race, and leaving everything else on the sidelines.

“It’s a big weekend for the sport, returning to Germany — the home race of our power train [Mercedes-Benz] partner — and also the final race before the summer break, so I intend to put all the speculation regarding my future to one side and concentrate on the racing here in Hockenheim,” Rio said in a statement.

Speculation on whether Rio will stay in the F1 has been strong over the past week, suggesting that the 23-year-old driver would end his F1 journey after the 11th series race last week — the Hungarian GP — for failing to deliver a total of €15 million in contract deals to Manor Racing team.

The fulfilled deal would allow Rio, a paying driver, to race the whole 21 series of the 2016 season under the Britain-based racing team. However, he has only paid about €7.5 million so far — with Rio’s main sponsor, state-owned oil company Pertamina, providing the most at €5 million.

“We’re working as hard as possible on the future behind the scenes, but that’s where I want to keep that side of things for this weekend,” said Rio, who finished fourth in the 2015 GP2 Series, one tier under F1, with Campos Racing.

Separately, manager Piers Hunnisett confirmed Rio’s participation at Hockenheim, saying: “Manor Racing and Rio Haryanto management have been working hard to secure the funding for Rio to compete the entire season and will continue to do so.”

It is understood that the summer break after the German GP will allow Hunnisett to pursue the necessary backing for Rio to complete his debut year.

Gatot S. Dewa Broto, spokesman for the Youth and Sports Ministry, said the government would continue supporting Rio in terms of seeking fresh funds from state companies as well as lobbying Manor to keep Rio around, at least until the end of this year.

“Rio’s performance so far is still below par, but [we hope] Manor could give him the chance to race until end of year.

“Other than that, [Manor director] Abdulla Boulsien in his last meeting with the sports minister on June 14 [in Jakarta] discussed a cooperation with the Indonesian government in promoting F1 through a career program for Rio,” said Gatot, adding that the minister would be in correspondence with Manor this week regarding the plans.

Alexander Rossi, who drove for Manor in five races last season before switching to IndyCar this year, winning the Indianapolis 500 with Andretti Herta Autosport, is the team’s reserve driver, according to autosport.com.

However, three of the final four races of the IndyCar season — at Texas on Aug. 27, Watkins Glen on Sept. 4 and Sonoma on Sept. 18 — clash with F1 races in Belgium, Italy and Singapore.

Rossi would only be an option for the final six races of the F1 campaign from late September onwards, once the IndyCar season has finished.

Manor has development driver Jordan King on its books, but the Racing Engineering GP2 does not have a “superlicence” to compete in F1.

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