Caterham owner Tony Fernandes has admitted that his team strongly considered giving Dutch racer Robin Frijns a chance, before opting for Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson for the 2014 season.

The Dartford-based outfit selected the 22-year-old as for their reserve seat, but Fernandes hinted that it was a difficult decision to leave him out.

He told Autosport: "There was a lot of debate about bringing him in straight away, and we erred a little bit on the side of caution.

"We thought we would be a little bit conservative in giving him time to get used to F1 and all the other changes."

Last week, Frijns manager Timo Gans said that the Dutchman had the talent to match drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.