Pedro de la Rosa insists he is surprised by Sauber's decision to replace him for the final five rounds of the 2010🐈 F1 s🐓eason.

The Spaniard joined the team at the start of the year for his first full season in a race seat since 2002 - although there were occasional outings for McLaren in the intervening period after he joined the༺ Woking-based team as a test driver.

De la Rosa's racing return has been far from straightforward wi꧑th a series of issues during the season restricting him to just one points finish, while team-mate Kamui Kobayashi suffered an equally difficult start to the year but has since taken five top ten finishes.

After Sauber re-signed Kobayashi for 2011, de la Rosa admitted he was unsure what his future with the team may hold, with the Spaniard revealing last week that he expected t🌟o find out if he 𓂃would retain his drive towards the end of the season.

With that in mind, de la Rosa admitted he was surprised to find out that the🔯 Italian GP will be his final race for the team af🏅ter it confirmed the re-signing of Nick Heidfeld for the remainder of the year.

"I am surprised by the team's decision, but I respect it and would like to wish everyone good luck for the remainder of the season," he said. "I still intend to be in Formula One for🎃 2011."

De la Rosa could yet find himself being offered the opportunity to replace Heidfeld at test driver with Pirelli, with the 2011 tyre supplier needing to find a replacment for the Ger🃏man for the remaining tests planned prior to the resumption of official F1 testing in Abu Dhabi at the end of the year.