Di Resta ready for F1 debut – Stewart

F1 Fanatic round-up

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Paul di Resta, Force India, Abu Dhabi, 2010

Jackie Stewart thinks DTM champion Paul di Resta is ready to make the step up to F1.

Links

Di Resta can join F1 elite – Sir Jackie (The Scotsman)

“He’s impressed everyone with what he’s achieved during his Friday test sessions with Force India this year, and he’s fast. But he’s also very clever, astute and ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ from what I’ve heard ?óÔé¼ÔÇØ very good with his technical feedback. I definitely think he’d help strengthen the grid even more.”

Visit with Formula 1 United States (Facebook)

Pictures of the latest model of the planned F1 track for Austin in the USA.

Side-splitting humour from Spain (ESPN)

Several sites were caught out by a fake story about HRT securing a sponsor for 2011 (here’s one of them). If I were a HRT employee concerned over the future of the team I wouldn’t be impressed by false reports of the team securing a major sponsor.

Craig Scarborough on Twitter

“Michael Tramonto is now a Model Designer at Lotus Racing having been a contract design engineer on KERS at Red Bull. Red Bull hire Dan Williams as Electronics Design Engineer from Lotus cars.”

Via the Live F1 Twitter app.

Comment of the day

Kamui Kobayashi won the “Pass of the Year” vote last year and this year he was voted “Overtaker of the Year” by F1 Fanatic readers. Here’s Puffy’s explanation why:

His overtaking moves were gutsy in a car that quite frankly had no right to be overtaking some of those that it did. Much easier to streak past another car in a nice elegant manner when you’re in a McLaren or Ferrari. He’s definitely rough around the edges but man is he entertaining; and a driver that I expect great things from some day.
Puffy

From the forum

Monad asks how the last cars of the no-refuelling era would compare against the 2010 machines.

Happy birthday!

Double birthday today – all the best to Rick and NAZ3012!

Image © Force India F1 Team

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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47 comments on “Di Resta ready for F1 debut – Stewart”

  1. Surely Paul Di Resta deserves the Force India race seat next season. I fail to see how another year waiting in the wings will benefit either him or the team.

    He has proven he is an accomplished racer by winning the DTM title in 2010, a series which has been compared to single seater formulae such as GP2 and as a result is a good test bed for an aspiring Formula 1 driver. During this championship he beat long time Mclaren test driver Gary Paffet which highlights the Scot’s ablility.

    Di Resta showed that he can cope in a Formula 1 car when he beat rivals in last years Young Driver test. He continued to shine in testing for Force India, and surely a young driver with proven ability and lots of potential would be worth the risk in the 2011 Force India!

    Paul Di Resta, his time is surely now!

    1. I sure hope so. It’d be good to see a DiResta and Hülkenberg lineup, but I think FI will probably want some stabillity and will probably hold on to Sutil for another year.

      1. You know if i was a team boss i would only really wanna keep a driver i wasn’t fully satisfied with only for comparison reasons with the new driver when i change the other driver seat.

      2. Why race Luizzi though? What possible benefit could Force India get from racing Luizzi for another year? The mans clearly not up to scratch give Di Resta the seat.

        1. As nice a guy as he is, and as well as he did at Korea (where Sutil was downright terrible), I have to agree. It’ll be a major bummer if Malya doesn’t buy Liuzzi out of his contract.

    2. I don’t really disagree with you. But I must point out that PDR beat Paffett in the 2010 DTM Championship by just four points (which is the difference between a first place and third place), and Paffett was DTM champ in 2005. There’s probably not that much between them in ability. However, I think there’s 7 years between them in age, so PDR is a more attractive commodity to the F1 teams.

      1. The entire time I was reading your post I thought you were referring to Pedro de la Rosa
        as ‘PDR’, and I thought you may have been drinking or smoking something while typing. Now that I replace the PDR with ‘Paul di Resta’ – I agree with you 100%

        1. Lol!
          Sorry, I have done that before, though. Accidentally confusing things while drinking too much of the falling-over-water.

        2. and I did… lol

  2. Paul di resta is quality, I was marshalling the DTM series which he won by miles, he looks to be a vettel quality and should be in F1 after winning the DTM series.

    1. Refering to “miles” as the Brands hatch race.

      1. Vettle quality? Oh yes Vettle quality:
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Formula_Three_Euroseries_season#Drivers_Standings

        Same team as well, I think this guy is clearly Vettle quality.

        1. Look at all the names in that list that made it to F1 – yet the champion of the series hasn’t, and might not even get a seat to a midfield team for 2011.

          2. Vettel
          7. Nakajima
          8. Kobayashi
          12. Buemi
          13. Grosean

          1. I know it’s incredible huh, just shows, it’s just as much about backing, nationality and money, as it is about talent.

            Still sometimes it shines through. Also, quite possible some of those names didn’t have teams up to the standard of ASM, there a dominant force.

        2. Would love to see another brit on the grid, hopefully taking on the other two “boys” for Britains number 1 driver.

          You could say Paul Di resta is in a good period in F1 to be british (2x british champs) and winning with a Mercedes team in DTM. You have sponsers trying to find the next British world champion who isn’t in F1 yet, Paul is that young man. He is also in the good books with mercedes which i think makes him part German “backing wise” in a sense which would help Force india keep the Mercedes engine for a few more years to come.

          I’ll be backing him in 2011 because he is that kind of driver when given the space and time i’m sure would match and even beat Lewis and Vettel down the line of seasons.

          Vettel rates him,
          Force India rates him,
          Norbet Haug rates him,
          Jackie Stewart rates him,

          Just give the kid a shot…

          Sorry Hulk but Paul looks to be a better option since he can drive anything with 4 wheels and still be up there with the best.

  3. That Hispania hoax thingymbob is strange. I don’t know exactly how similar to April Fools Day this ‘Day of the Innocents’ is, but in England any untruthful stories on April Fools Day tend to be outlandish and a bit daft, something which no one is likely to take seriously.

    The two hoax stories that this Spanish website has apparently created are both quite realistic scenarios, so no wonder so many people took them seriously. It comes across more as a lie than a well meaning hoax- as Keith suggests, people’s livelihoods are at stake here

    1. I find it the strangest, that after taking the bait last year, a lot of people took them at face value again this year.

  4. And on a completely different subject: If you like F1 liveries, and you liked the Jordan team, you may be interested in this article:

    http://f1colours.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/livery-histories-2-jordan/

    1. The best bit of the off season is definately seeing all the pretty colours of the new cars!!

      Who doesn’t like F1 Liveries? :D
      Here’s hoping Mclaren ‘go West’ with more black in 2011….

      1. I only wish certain teams would get a bit more inventive with their liveries. Redbull for instance, same colours since their inception. McLaren could do with freshening up, Williams as well.

        An the prime culprits, Ferrari have been riffing on the same tune for far to long, get some imaginaition freshen up. It’s only been 60 years.

        1. I’ve always wondered why they don’t put a bit of green in with that white too.

          1. aeropaint? :)

        2. Redbull for instance, same colours since their inception.

          Totally agree. They should paint a car up like one of their cans, silver and blue, separated into four quadrants of the car, that’d be a unique livery that would catch the eye a bit more than their current one.

          1. Here’s a mock up I found after a quick google image search. I think their original test livery was similar to this as well:

            http://www.formula1.com/photos/597×478/manual/redbull01.jpg

          2. That’s the original testing livery the team had in late 2004, as, for example, can be seen in this old gallery:

            http://motorsport.com/photos/select.asp?S=F1&E=Barcelona_November_testin/Day_2&Y=2004&O=12

      2. i agree! the liverie guessing is keeping me alive these holidays.

  5. But where will he end up?There is only four seats left with two in Force India & HRT each.Sutil may end up in Force India with Luizzi who says his seats is also secured. I doubt Paul will want to go in HRT.

    1. Liuzzi might say his seat at Force India is secure, but that doesn’t mean it is. The team are clearly dragging their feet over driver contracts, and they can always buy Liuzzi out of his contract. Likewise Adrian Sutil.

      1. Likewise Adrian Sutil.

        He wouldn’t even need to be bought out would he? I thought his contract was up and Liuzzi’s is for another year…

    2. I would be surprised if Luizzi still kept his seat, despite him saying so. Luizzi is going no where in F1 and brings almost nothing to the sport and the team. Force India would be stupid not to sign Paul for next year.

      1. It would be stupid not to sign The Hulk. He has F1 experience and they know what he can do with an F1 car.

        Being good in lower series is no guarantee to deliver in F1. Shumi wasn’t that good but when he got in an F1 car for the first time he drove faster than the regular Jordan drivers.

        1. Sutil & Hulk will be a great pair for 2011 in Force In

          1. Sorry it will be Force India

          2. i second that

      2. Hulk had his opportunity ti impress, and while he did have a couple of brilliant moments, he still got hammered by the dinosaur. Not that Rubens is a bad driver, but he just isn’t that great either.

        Paul would be my 1st preference, if not, then hulk at #2. Either ways, Sutil should be signed for sure.

  6. Off topic: The New York Times has a good story about Sarah Fisher in IndyCar.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/sports/autoracing/30motherhood.html?hp

    1. Thanks, that’s an interesting article. I am not sure what I think of it. On the one hand, it is good to see someone move from race driver to a reasonably successful team owner, but on the other hand it shows again how much money is determining if a driver has real success in racing – and it highlights a natural barrier for women to have a racing career, as it is much easier for men to have a kid, but women really do need to chose to have a kid, or keep racing – it is hard to be pregnant in a race car.

    2. Nice article. Good to see Fisher building her own way to motor sport success.

  7. I think Lotus should stay green and contract “The Hulk” to drive for them, best wishes to Di Resta hopefully he has enough sponsorship for this year and the next, or maybe he should become a Pastor :P

    1. I think a lot of people underestimaite what it is that Truli brings to Lotus, an indeed what he gave to Cosworth. Kovalinen has all the energy and drive, Truli brings the experiance absolutley vital for a new team. His feedback will bring in more performance over a year than any rookie or newbie could bring. Right now Lotus are more than happy to hold onto their current pairing, for the stability it brings, an the way that it clicks with their current aims.

    2. Make that a Hulk livery? But they would have to use a lighter tone of green, that would be a shame, on the other hand, their 2010 car looked just as bulky as the Hulk!

  8. I hope that this happens….Paul raced against both Hamilton and Vettel in lower catagories, and was very competitive against these 2 world champions.

  9. let me spoil the fun…i am praying narain karthikeyan shows up for the indian gp..
    frankly, di resta’s friday times were similar to that of liuzzi..his times didn’t look to be challenging that of sutil..

    the best thing will be to get hulkenberg along side sutil

    or else give the second seat to narain and get the army of narain fans behind force india..

    1. Di Resta’s times were set in either liuzzi’s car or sutil’s and with that in mind he was limited to how hard he could push in case the car was damaged. Give the guy a car that is his and that he can push properly hard in and you’ll see some fast times certainly faster than narain would manage.

      1. i doubt if di resta will be able to get ahead of sutil though…

        if you need a 2nd driver only..why not take narain and get the sponsorship as well..

        i secretly hope that narain will prove his critics wrong..

        i think he showed enough pace in his only season to be considered a fast albeit error prone driver..but i do hope he gets it…will make it so more interesting to watch the GP then..

        it will also make a world of difference to the success of the event as well..

    2. tbh i think they will be looking for an indian driver such as karun chandhok and the force india liverly should be red with the green orange and white stripes like this in the indian gp cercuit preview

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwoirBdfAV0

  10. Paul di resta is quality, I was marshalling the DTM series which he won by miles, he looks to be a vettel quality and should be in F1 after winning the DTM series.

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