Motor Sport: Di Resta refuses to abandon F1 title dream

Saturday 27 October 2012

Paul Di Resta remains convinced he has the talent to land a Formula One title despite acknowledging his disappointment at having failed to land a place with a bigger team for next season.

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Ian Parkes

For much of the campaign, the Scot was linked with a potential move to Ferrari, Mercedes or McLaren. However, Mercedes turned to Lewis Hamilton; his seat at McLaren was taken by Sergio Perez; and Ferrari opted to re-sign Felipe Massa for another year.

That means Di Resta has to content himself with a third season at Force India for 2013. Asked about missing out on a high-profile move, he said: "There is always disappointment. I've always said I want to be in a car that's winning races and championships. At least the team were quite open about their position."They said they would not hold me back if something came up, but for whatever reason it's not happened, so you have to continue where you are. This team is obviously growing, and you want to be part of something that's growing and will hopefully be successful. But I definitely feel ready for a title tilt. I'm definitely in a position where I feel the consistency is there. I still have time. I'm 26. But you get to a point where you want to be on the podium, where you want to be winning races on a regular basis."One reason why Di Resta was overlooked by McLaren was because they did not want to have two British drivers again, as a number of partners had expressed concerns at the "Britishness" of the team. "I should have said I'm Scottish," joked Di Resta.Ahead of tomorrow's Indian Grand Prix, Di Resta was forced to fend off questions about whether he even would be in F1 next year given the financial difficulties being faced by Vijay Mallya, the co-owner and team principal. His airline, Kingfisher, is understood to be £1.5bn in debt and its planes have been grounded since March.Di Resta said: "As far as I'm aware, the two companies are separate. There is a Formula One division, then there are Vijay's two other businesses. I'm employed to race a car, that's what I do. Anything else is not something I can influence, not something I have control over. The team is going along at the moment. Everything seems normal."Hamilton, meanwhile, believes McLaren can throw caution to the wind because they no longer have anything to lose in this year's world title race. He and his team-mate Jenson Button trail Sebastian Vettel by 62 and 84 points respectively, with only 100 now available.After yesterday's two practice sessions, it seems they are steeling themselves to trail in Vettel's wake once more. The pair were just under a second off the pace of Vettel, who was quickest in both 90-minute outings at the Buddh International Circuit. Button suffered a gearshift problem on the second lap of his long run, bringing his second session to an early conclusion.Only Mark Webber, Vettel's Red Bull team-mate could keep pace, the Australian just over a tenth of a second adrift. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who is six points behind Vettel, found himself six-tenths of a second down in third.

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Motor Sport: Di Resta refuses to abandon F1 title dream

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