Paul di Resta's outbursts causing a hindrance

Paul di Resta has some issues to sort

Over the years we have seen the rise and fall of many drivers, many of them do have some unique characteristics that made them a legend of Formula 1. Some of the drivers were rich in spatial awareness, while some of them had high charisma. But should they blame their own traits for causing an hindrance to their championship aspirations?

Paul di Resta entered Formula 1 with quite an expectation. His entry into Formula 1 was significantly delayed, and he took an odd route to enter the pinnacle of the motorsport. It has to be noted that both the drivers of Force India are significantly backed by Mercedes, and at a certain time were under the radar of McLaren. A driver’s talent is as good as his performance on track.

For sure, the drivers at the back aren’t noticed much, unless they significantly outshine their teammates, and in case of rookies at the backmarkers, they just have to match their experienced teammate, if they are paired with one. The midfield pack of drivers are noticed whenever they squeeze into points, and often singled out during the silly season.

Whenever there is a huge hype around the driver, the expectations will surely pump up. But the driver could do as much as the capabilities of his car, and this performance will be so marginal when one is paired with a driver of similar breed.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Force India is a midfield team, although Vijay Mallya has tipped to pump in significant money when there is a clarity on Resource Restriction Agreement, it has to be said that the new investment will still be smaller than the Top 5 teams of the sport.

On many occasions, one has to believe that the best chance for the drivers to outshine at Force India is probably when they squeeze into points, and hope that his nemesis ends up as a retirement or out of the points. We had many debates on whether Paul di Resta is overrated or if Force India is acting as a hurdle to his progress.

A lot of it could be down to the British Media, who over-hyped his arrival to the pinnacle of the motorsport. We are not going to get into this debate again, as to whether he is a mid-card competitor or a mighty talented lad struck at a wrong place. But there is one particular trait of his which might just be causing an hindrance to his progress.

There have been countless allegations by Paul di Resta as to how much the team’s call has hurt his chances for pole position, and making into Q1 or Q2. A simple Google search will fetch you the results for the same.

Its quite normal when a driver makes an allegation against his team, for more than one occasion, but we don’t quite remember when was the last time, when a driver went all out against his team, and yet stayed there for more than one season. Also, it has to be noted that Paul di Resta seems to have praised his team’s efforts before the European leg of this season, and also back in 2011 Singapore Grand Prix when Force India brought many upgrades.

On the contrary, Force India has heaped praises on their drivers at all appropriate times. Although it wasn’t a possibility, I was wondering if there was a chance of Paul di Resta going to Red Bull for the 2014 season.

In the last few seasons, Mark Webber has suffered numerous issues with his car, be it the KERS issue in the race, or a mysterious issue that hampers his starts. Webber issues a diplomatic statement in 70% of the above cases, but Paul di Resta would have gone a one step ahead and would have ended up blaming the management. Not that Paul di Resta would have done that, but maybe, he could have ended up doing the same, considering the amount of frustrations that he builds up over the course of the season. Would have been fun, right?

On his way to stardom?

“We had a bit of an issue with the gearbox settings being incorrect before qualifying,” said di Resta when asked about what happened by AUTOSPORT.

“It was key to be on the track at the right time and though we probably did not have to change it, it was changed. The big thing is why it was wrong to begin with? The question is why did we try to fix it and not just go out because it was not going to make a difference?”

“Probably what threw us was that our performance on inters at the beginning was very successful, We were well within the top three, better than we imagined, and maybe we felt a bit too comfortable.”

“We obviously hit it wrong, We’ve got it wrong on the pit wall, I think. We should have continued the lap we were on at the beginning. We chose to abort and unfortunately on the out-lap it started raining.” he added.

“I had so much respect and he was my hero and all the rest, and eventually I got to race against him. Now, though, I feel a bit different about Michael. I’m quite glad he’s retired and he’s out of the way, because he’s a bit of a pain in the ass on the track.”

During the recent qualifying session at the Belgium Grand Prix, the Scot straight away claimed that it was his decision to start on intermediate tyres in Q3.

“Fifth place on the grid is a great result. At the start of Q3 I knew that I wanted to go straight out on the intermediates. It was a brave decision and the team let me go ahead with it, while the others chose dry tyres. I knew it was our best chance to get up towards the front of the grid and it paid off.”

“With Paul we judged this pretty much to perfection and for a while we were looking good for a front row start. But the rain eased up and he dropped down to fifth, which is still an excellent result.” said Vijay Mallya.

You could still argue that Paul di Resta’s comments were due to the poor streak of bad qualifying results, most of them was down to the mistake of his team. In a scenario like that, most of the drivers would end up frustrated. But when someone like Luca di Montezemolo, who prefers the drivers to put the team beyond anything else, would he be impressed with Paul di Resta’s attitude off the track?

Paul di Resta is still young, and has a long way to go in Formula 1. He might be the champion elsewhere, but Formula 1 is a different bed for him. For him to succeed here, he needs to learn and deliver on the track. He needs to learn from his rivals, and needs to understand what the top teams yearn in a driver’s attributes, especially when he states that he has built up a reputation.

“I’ve built my reputation in Formula One. I want to be in a winning seat, but it’s people’s board’s decisions.

But we hope that he understands ‘Too much of anything is bad’.