Di Resta’s sights on world title
FORCE India’s Paul di Resta has said he will not rest until he has ended Sebastian Vettel’s grip on Formula 1 and won a world championship.
The Scot is due to enter his second season with the Silverstone-based squad, alongside 24-year-old German Nico Hulkenberg, and has said he is confident the team’s new driver line-up, together with lessons learned in 2011, will ensure continued improvement in 2012.
The 25-year-old told an audience at the Autosport International show at the NEC he had been sad to see his 2011 team-mate Adrian Sutil leave, but thought the new line-up would help push the team forward.
He said: “Adrian was a fast guy who had been there for five years, and you don’t stay in F1 if you’re slow.
“He was a big part of Force India, but the board took the decision to bring Nico in and it should be exciting. It’s a young team in terms of the driver line-up but it should give the team a spark.
“We’re both on equal territory as we have the same experience, so it should be good. We’re already working together, pushing ideas to the team to try and improve from last year, and that is being taken on board.”
“My second year is going to be where experience plays in,” he added. “I can arrive at grands prix this year and know what is going to change, what to look for and how to get the perfect balance. Getting that little extra edge is so difficult against these guys because they know it inside out.”
In a separate interview Di Resta told the Daily Mail he had high hopes for the future, including being “greedy” to become the next British world champion, and responded to speculation he could replace seven-time champion Michael Schumacher at fellow county team Mercedes GP once the German is out of contract in 2013, by saying “never say never”.
He said: “I’d love to drive for them. I’ve got great friends and great support at Mercedes-Benz. I’ve been part of their programme for six years and I’m still very close to them now. I never say never.
“Right now I am a Force India Formula 1 driver, so the focus is there. But in the future I want to be winning races and I’ll make my decisions based on that.”
Meanwhile Force India’s sporting director Andy Stevenson has said the team will treat both its drivers equally this season.
He told Sky Sports News: “We’re never had a policy here where we have a lead driver. Both drivers get exactly the same treatment. They get exactly the same equipment.”
After the team’s best season in F1 in 2011, Stevenson said the squad was targeting fifth place in the constructors’ championship “as a minimum” in 2012.
Of the new car he said: “From what I’ve seen so far it looks very, very good but we have to get it on the track.
“We know what the figures are. We have confidence in the car we’ve designed. But we don’t know what the guys down the road have done. So until we get to those first tests and actually see what sort of speed other cars are carrying, then it’s difficult to tell.”
Email to a friend
Print this page- BREAKING NEWS: Tributes paid to Niamh Curry as brave five-year-old loses battle against cancer
- BREAKING NEWS: Pensioner dies after collision at Northampton shopping centre
- Man tied to tree and beaten on Northampton Racecourse
- BREAKING NEWS: Woman’s body found after ‘suicide’ in Northampton hotel room
- BREAKING NEWS: Seven-year-old boy dies following house fire in Northamptonshire
- Staff strike at Northampton school over academy plans forces closure
- Northampton binmen at ‘breaking point’
- Saints’ stadium plans get support as long as traffic issues solved
- Eastern European pupils helping school standards across Northampton
- Exclusive: PM David Cameron says Northamptonshire Police Commissioner role is “a big job for a big local figure”
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Northampton
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.