Di Resta out of points again after Vettel takes fourth chequered flag in a row

Sports Journalist

Monday 29 October 2012

Another Sunday, another processional triumph for Sebastian Vettel and prosaic trudge home out of the points for Paul Di Resta.

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Neil Drysdale

If anything has summed up the 2012 Formula One campaign, it is the contrast between the fashion in which Vettel limped from the blocks, prior to finding his inner Usain Bolt when it mattered. Whereas, the Scot, who used to meet and beat the German in other series, before their paths re-connected in F1 last year, has slipped out of the reckoning like somebody with a slow puncture.

As in was in Korea, so the script repeated itself at the India Grand Prix, where events unfolded with a "Groundhog Day" predictability. Vettel, at 25, has been in inexorable mood for the past couple of months and never looked as if he was going to relinquish his grip on the proceedings, duly recording his fourth consecutive GP triumph, and increasing his lead over Fernando Alonso to 13 points, with three races remaining. The momentum is with him, despite the near-heroic endeavours of Alonso to maximise the potential of a mediocre Ferrari car, and it would require an improbable transformation for "Baby Schumi" to waste this chance to wrap up his third title in November.Vettel's public perception is as one of life's good eggs, but his geniality seems to rise in direct relation to his success on the track. There weren't too smiles and back-slapping antics, for instance, when his Red Bull colleague, Mark Webber, was threatening to seize the prize from under Vettel's nose in 2010. At that stage, acrimony erupted between the duo, amid suggestions that the younger man was demanding special treatment.Yet, in general, he is depicted as a blue-eyed boy, a mixture of Skid Solo and the Red Baron. Di Resta, by comparison, is Murray to his Federer, a taciturn mixture of thrawn Gael and morose mumbler. It doesn't seem important that anybody who has actually visited the Scot at his home in Bathgate will encounter somebody with a dry-as-Nevada sense of humour and no dearth of intelligence, allied to a ferocious desire.However, as the curtain begins to fall on the current season, the reality is that the three major teams have cemented their line-ups for the next 12 months, with no change at either Red Bull or Ferrari, and Sergio Perez replacing Lewis Hamilton at McLaren. Di Resta, meanwhile, has slipped behind Nico Hulkenberg – who again finished in the points – and the worry has to be that the prospect of another year at Force India, where he is destined to be scrabbling for minor placings, will eventually wear Di Resta down.On Saturday, following a dismal qualifying session, where he was so far off the pace to Hulkenberg that he talked about the need for a "massive investigation", Di Resta finally served notice the gloves might be coming off and that bland sound bites will only take him so far.But it is a fine balancing act, and particularly for the driver in a mid-table vehicle. The Alonsos and Hamiltons can get away with their pouts and acts of petulance – and one still wonders how the latter will deal with the inevitable deflation which will follow his baffling switch to Mercedes – but Di Resta has to be upbeat, even as he is being beaten up by rivals; he has to ooze positivity, irrespective of his travails; and he has to serve up decent PR, but avoid straying into controversy or engaging in criticism of his rivals. Even Kofi Annan might struggle to negotiate that to-do list without losing his rag."You haven't seen the real me yet," said Di Resta, who is still in the frame to fill Webber's shoes in 2014, or Felipe Massa in a similar time frame. "I understand the need to get out there and show people who you are."But, as he knows, nothing works better than performance. Time for Force India to rise to the challenge, and deliver more than hot air and sweet nothings.

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Di Resta out of points again after Vettel takes fourth chequered flag in a row

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