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...
 
On the other hand, I would probably rank di Resta above:

Maldonado
Stevens
Grosjean
Merhi
Ericsson

(and in the reserve drivers)
Marciello
Woolf
Wehrlein
Lynn
Buemi
King
 
No way is Di Resta above Grosjean. Grosjean has been competitive in every category he's ever raced in and has made far more of his time in F1 than Di Resta ever did.

Di Resta had his 3 years and failed to impress. The likes are Lynn, Marciello and Mehri have been impressing at junior level and deserve to get given a shot more than someone who has had his.

With so few seats around the last thing we need is for a middle of the roader to come back in and put a block on potential talent getting into F1.
 
Di Resta's big claim to fame was he was Euro f3 champ at the expense of Vettel and DTM champion but when it mattered most he failed to impress to get the drives
 
Yeah no Grosjean is definitely better than di Resta. Accident-prone early on but he seems to have fixed that, compared pretty well to Kimi at Lotus, where Kimi was both happy and fast. Not his fault the Lotus has been shit lately. This year if they get past the first corner they should be a solid midfield team and we can once again see what he can do.
 
Most drivers who move into F1 fail. Out of Lynn, Marciello and Merhi, probably only one would be able to establish himself (I'm betting it wouldn't be Merhi, by the way). So it's natural to wonder whether, because these guys have shown some talent in GP2, GP3 or World Series, they're the next Ricciardo. Chances are, they won't be. Whereas with di Resta we know now that he's...okay.

Personally if I was running a small team, I'd be inclined to give the unknown quantity a chance, but the financial arrangements of the constructors' championship very much incentivise me to stick someone like di Resta in my car (unless the youngster has a load of cash).
 
I was reading an article on an interview with Bob Fernley in F1 magazine and his response on Di Resta when someone asked why Force India did not keep him

" I bought Paul into Force India through DTM and he did a good job for us. But there are two aspects to motor racing, both in and out of the car. Paul did a very good job technically in developing the car, but there are times when you become a liability in how you're putting forward the team. Paul overstepped the mark, and regrettably the decision was made to replace him. It was nothing to do with his driving, it was how he was working with the team. If the team loses confidence in a driver, its not recoverable. I'm sure if you could put the clock back, he'd think in a different way."


I guess the last point does not apply to Pastor Maldonado then

Harsh but honest opinion about Di Resta who did overstep the mark at times complaining bitterly about the team's shoddiness in the final season and constantly thinking he's a world class driver and should be driving for a big team.

It does not help his case when he does not have $$$ like both Perez and Maldonado. Unfortunately for Di Resta he no longer had Norbert Haug backing him
 
You'd think "don't call the team shit" would be lesson one in racing driver school wouldn't you?

I don't think money had anything to do with why he's not in F1. His pace was average, he acted like he deserved a top seat without the performance to back it up and, so it seems, he was a nobba.

Goodbye Paul. No one will remember you.
 
RasputinLives But if he had say $20m of sponsorship then both Force India and Lotus would have overlooked his complaining to sign him because lets be frank he's probably slightly better than Perez and definitely miles better than Maldonado
 
He's not better than Perez or Maldonado. He's never shown that. Both have better junior records, both have higher results in worse equiptment.

Plus no. If a driver slags the team off he's not likely to get a drive whether money is an issue or not. Plus if a driver acts like he's too good for a team(like he did) he's not going to get one either.

Di Resta was all mouth and no troussers.
 
RasputinLives I meant F1 record not junior record otherwise he might argue he is the only teammate to beat Vettel

In the age of F1 currently I do think money would have made a real difference just look at Maldonado currently at Lotus. Most drivers would be dropped with the performances Pastor is putting in currently.

Certainly the last season though you could Di Resta getting really frustrated with the team with the series of quali mishaps and him pretty demanding he ought to be in a top team. He thought Perez only got the Mclaren drive because he had the money

It could only really backfire certainly when he was up against both Perez and Maldonado for both FI and Lotus drives and they both had money when he was not going to get a drive at Ferrari
 
Last edited:
Is it actually possibly to talk about Di Resta without the 'he beat Vettel' thing being touted out? He also got beat by Adrian Sutil. Does Sutil deserve a top drive?
 
RasputinLives Sutil was offered a top drive at Renault but for some reason he tried to haggle for money and nearly found himself without a seat when Renault decided to pick Heidfeld to substitute Kubica and he had to scramble to get a Force India drive for 2011.
You can excuse it as it was his first season . I do wonder whether having a fall out with Anthony Hamilton also damaged his career as well
 
RasputinLives Sutil was offered a contract ( or one was in place ) for him to sign for Renault for 2011. I really don;t know why he did not sign it apart from asking for money or scared of Kubica. That was when Sutil was at his peak and really that was his mistake because his career never recovered.

Going back to Di Resta, you have to wonder what he was thinking blaming Force India that they are denying him the opportunities to land a top drive. I am trying to remember other drivers doing it

I can only think Senna and Mansell doing it mainly aiming their anger at Prost for deliberately manipulating so neither one could take him on fairly but these guys were proven front runners. Di Resta had not proven himself at the very sharp end
 
I have to pull you up on this again. Sorry. I even went and did some back reading to make sure I hadn't mixed it up.

There is no evidence ANYWHERE that Sutil was offered a contract at Renault. Not a smidgen. Speculation was rife in the media that he was going to Renault but in actual fact they extended Petrov's contract. Sutil has never said he was offered a contract and Renault have never said he was offered a contract. It might have been speculated about in James Allen's blog but it is not a fact.

Renault weren't a top team them anyway.
 
Di Resta was beaten comfortably by Sutil in 2011, but he was a rookie. They paired up again in 2013 and di Resta was comfortably ahead, although it is only fair to mention that Sutil was returning from a year out of the sport, and over their combined time together di Resta had only a small advantage.

Di Resta had a similarly weird matchup with Hulkenberg in 2012. Di Resta dominated Hulkenberg in the first half of the season, but in the second half of the season Hulkenberg dominated di Resta and finished ahead by a small margin.

From that I can only conclude that di Resta was a little bit better than Sutil but a little worse than Hulkenberg. That probably puts him around the level of Perez, but ahead of Guttierez.
 
Well it was interesting to see him interviewing Button for Sky F1 seeing he could have not long ago been driving with Button at Mclaren..

I think the boat has sailed for Di Resta when it comes to F1 unless some team at the back wants him or Williams decide to throw him a lifeline like they did with Wurz all those years ago
 
Back
Top Bottom