Can Paul Di Resta keep his place in Force India next season?

Paul Di Resta’s future hangs in balance for 2014 season as he is yet to get a confirmed contract

Paul Di Resta finds himself in a bit of a bother as the British born driver is yet to get a confirmed seat for the 2014 season from his current employers Force India. The uncertainty has been fuelled by the recent wretched form of the driver with no points from seven races, his last point scoring race (that witnessed a tyre fiasco) being at Silverstone in June. Since then Di Resta has finished only two races (Japan and Germany), had two DNFs (Hungry and Singapore) and three retirements (Belgium, Italy and Korea).

The situation throws a lot of questions to answer for Di Resta who has a three year old career in Formula One. Will he be retained by Force India? If not, will he be able to get a drive for another team? Or is it that he will end up going out of Formula One? Here’s a take on Di Resta’s future.

Blame it on tyres

While there are questions being raised on the form of Di Resta, much of the debacle can be attributed to the change in construction of Pirelli’s tyres following the blow-out crisis that unfolded over the course of the British Grand Prix weekend. Up until that point, Di Resta had scored points in seven of the first eight races that included a career-high equaling fourth at the Bahrain Grand Prix and was way ahead of teammate Adrian Sutil for the first time after becoming teammates again.

But on the flip side, one of the reasons for Di Resta’s poor performance can be attributed to driver errors. He took a little bit too much kerb in Korea and spun out, missed a corner and went straight into the barriers in Singapore and locked up his front tyres before crashing into Romain Grosjean in Italy.

Force India needs a change of face

Di Resta, who has been with Force India for three seasons, has been outperformed by his teammates. He finished 14th behind Nico Hulkenberg (who finished 11th and had to move to Sauber to make way for Sutil in 2013) last year and 13th behind Sutil (who finished 9th) in 2011. Force India are rumoured to be in touch with Hulkenberg to get him back and that could mean a closed door for Di Resta. But if Hulkenberg doesn’t go with the option and Force India are unable to find a better replacement then Di Resta might just be able to keep his seat.

However, James Calado, the young reserve driver, could be the surprise package and a strong contender for Di Resta’s seat if Vijay Mallya decides to take a bit of a gamble by offering a seat to fresh talent. But with the business sense of Mallya, he probably would want to keep Calado as the last resort.

Force India looking for a pay driver?

Following Sauber’s footsteps of hiring Sergey Sirotkin , Force India might look for a pay driver as Di Resta doesn’t bring a significant financial support to the team. But it might be easier said than done. Force India would have to look at someone who can get a couple of sponsors apart from having experience of driving a Formula One car. Could it be one of the back-markers of the current season or someone who took a sabbatical from Formula One and is now looking to make a comeback into the fast lane. We might have to wait till the end of December before we get to know the fate of one of the young, promising and talented drivers in Formula One.