Paul di Resta

Just realised we don't have a thread on the young Scot and there's something I have to get off my chest but, first, here's some history.

A real sporting family, his cousins are the Franchitti brothers and his step father was Scottish footballer Dougie McCracken (no, I'd never heard of him either but he played for Ayr, Dunbarton and East Fife). As ever, started in karting before moving to Formula Renault with Manor Motorsport. He was Formula 3 Euroseries champion in 2006 before moving on to DTM.

With Mercedes backing he was lined up for a drive with Force India in 2009 but FI chose to continue with their '08 driver line up. As test driver in 2010 for FI di Resta finally secured a seat for the 2011 season alongside Adrian Sutil scoring points on his debut and having a highest finish to date of 7th in Hungary.

Anyway, as to my moan. At the pre-race interviews at Spa di Resta complained that he only qualified 18th as the team called him in telling him he was "safe" to get into Q2. Can someone explain why the drivers don't argue with their teams in these situations? He must have seen the track was drying and the grip improving so why doesn't he "grow a pair" and tell them he wants to carry on? It's all too easy to abdicate responsibilty, you're in the car mate, tell them what you think.

And relax...
 
RasputinLives Di Resta has a contract for 2014 with Force India - it is more whether a top team will sign him is the issue

I thought Bottas would stay at Williams and Maldonado maybe the one to get the boot
 
Il_leone - Force India have an option on Paul Di Resta. This is a long way to being confirmed.

As for Bottas, he is managed by Mr Wolff who may want to push his driver into a better seat than the Williams and therefore use his Merc connections to bump him up to Force India.
 
RasputinLives I remember apparently Mercedes did help to get Sutil back into the Force India seat when everyone thought Bianchi was a certainty with Ferrari engines in mind

Not being confirmed but seeing he is the lead driver in terms of points unless someone brings more money substantially I don;t see Force India wanting to pay off Di Resta unless it was for a top team like they said
 
Like I said. I doubt Force India are overly chuffed with either driver right now and Di Resta has not exactly been complementary about the team and makes no secret he doesn't want to be there. Maybe if they see a driver they think has equal skill they'd be inclined to take him.

For instance if Perez or Hulkenberg were available I think they'd kick him out pretty quick. If you think that the second seat will go to someone with sponsors then that's game over really.
 
RasputinLives No Di Resta's moaning won;t help but the team has screwed him so many times in quali is unacceptable this season. A team can only put up with it so much


Sutil - should be just glad he's back in F1 and I would have given him a carpetting>:( for deliberately blocking Hamilton at Canada and Monza which is costing team points because he wanted to make it personal

I agree Force India will want one driver with decent sponsors
 
Di Resta has to be just about the worst of all worlds when it comes to hiring an F1 driver.

He's not got any sponsors nor the media profile to attract any. His good performances aren't eye-catching and aren't frequent. He isn't consistent or particularly fast. He doesn't show off the machinery but does talk down the team. He's never going to open up a huge new market and is thoroughly overshadowed in his home country.

He's not even going to become a Kobayashi-style media darling cult hero. I don't know why you'd hire him.
 
no-FIAt-please - I'm not saying he is, but it doesn't help Force India that you only ever see their cars when they're either sitting in a tyre barrier, in the background of something else or sitting in the pitlane. Even having someone equivalent but more flamboyant might just get them on TV more.
 
And what does di Resta have? His only claim to fame is beating Vettel for the F3 championship in 2006, the year Seb nearly lost his finger. What has he done in F1 so far? A lot of moaning. At least Ricciardo has a reputation for something positive.
 
Josh True he beat Vettel but he does not harp about how envious he is of Seb

No one remembers if you qualify in the top 3 rows but ended up outside the points like Ricciardo usually does

Ricciardo does not perform when it matters - race day ! he falls back like Trulli did and he's probably got the Red Bull drive because they are not expecting him to trouble Seb like Kimi might

At least Di Resta at times when has been shafted by his team in quali has had to fight up to the points several times this season
 
sushifiesta it helps there is a Dark Lord named Helmut Marko sticking the knife into Mark Webber at every opportunity to replace him with say Ricciardo when being asked about Red Bull much in the same vein as Flavio Briatore does with his drivers

Let me ask the question what is the most memorable performance Ricciardo has done in F1 on a race day?
 
You're simply di Rest', not as good as all the rest
Not better than anyone, anyone I've ever met
I know it sounds hard, but it's time to give up your car
It'll tear up your heart, I know baby, but would you rather be dead

Thanks for putting that in my head F1Yorkshire you git.....:(
 
Someone suggested a wild rumour on the F1 Forum if Force India re-signed Hulkenberg would they replace Sutil or Di Resta which flummoxed EJ a bit who thinks Hulk is going to be Lotus and two drivers of the same nationality is not something Force India do

Another frustrating race for Di Resta - I'm afraid he'd better put his name to FI contract he has unless somehow he finds a new lease of life somewhere by chance - Williams, Sauber or Mclaren - all really a long shot. I think Hulk and Grosjean would have made Lotus' mind up today
 
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