Paul di Resta

Paul di Resta

Born	15 April 1986 (1986-04-15) (age 25) Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland, UK
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Team	Force India-Mercedes
Car #	15
Races	18
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	23
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2011 Australian Grand Prix
Last race	2011 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Paul di Resta (born April 16, 1986 in Livingston, Scotland^[1]) is a British racing driver from Scotland, currently competing in Formula One with Force India. He is also a former DTM champion.

Personal life

Di Resta, who grew up in Uphall, West Lothian, is the cousin of fellow racing drivers Dario Franchitti and Marino Franchitti.^[2] In February 2010, di Resta was made a director of his family's leisure firm.

His step-father was Scottish footballer Dougie McCracken.^[3]

Career

Karting

He started his career in karting, racing in various competitive series of karts from 1994 until 2002. In 2001 he won the British JICA Championship.

Formula Renault

He stepped up to single-seaters at the end of 2002, when he competed in the British Formula Renault Winter Series. He raced in British Formula Renault full-time in 2003 with the Eurotek Motorsport team, finishing seventh in the standings with one race win. He switched to Manor Motorsport for 2004, finishing third in the championship standings with four wins. He also entered some races of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 with the Manor team. He also won the prestigious McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of The Year Award in 2004. The award had been won by his cousin Dario Franchitti in 1992.

Formula Three

Di Resta switched to the Formula Three Euroseries with Manor Motorsport in 2005, finishing tenth in the standings. For 2006 he moved to the ASM Formule 3 team, winning the championship with five wins, beating team mate and future Formula One World Drivers Champion, Sebastian Vettel. Di Resta also won the 2006 BP Ultimate Masters at Circuit Park Zandvoort.

DTM

Di Resta finished runner-up in the 2008 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters season.

In 2007, di Resta switched from single-seaters to race in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM) touring car racing series, for Mercedes. In the championship he finished 5th overall behind drivers Mattias Ekstrom (who won his second DTM title), Bruno Spengler, Martin Tomczyk and Jamie Green. Di Resta was the highest driver in the standings to drive a non-2007 car. His performances earned him a 2008 Mercedes C Klasse for the 2008 season, as a reward for his exceptional debut season in the DTM championship. Di Resta raced a strong championship, winning two races and finishing second in points, just four points behind eventual champion Timo Scheider of Audi. In 2009, he finished third overall, behind Scheider and compatriot Gary Paffett. In 2010, he won three races in a row on the way to winning the championship.

Formula One

Di Resta during practice at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Di Resta at the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix.

Di Resta tested for the McLaren Formula One team, and was in the frame for a drive with the Force India team for the 2009 season due to the teams' shared engine supplier, Mercedes-Benz. However, Force India chose to retain Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil, with Vitantonio Liuzzi as reserve driver.^[4]

In December 2009, with Fisichella having moved to Ferrari and Liuzzi being promoted to the race team, di Resta took part in a test with the team at the Jerez circuit alongside J. R. Hildebrand.^[5] At the Autosport International show in January 2010, he was said to have been close to securing a deal to become the team's test and reserve driver for the 2010 season.^[6] The deal was duly announced on February 2.^[7] Di Resta made his Formula One race meeting début at the 2010 Australian Grand Prix, where he took part in the first free practice session in place of Sutil.^[8] Following completion of the session, Di Resta was placed 11th.^[9] He then drove in the first practice sessions of all the following races up to the Monaco Grand Prix, where he did not take part. He resumed driving for the team at the European Grand Prix and the following British Grand Prix. After sitting out the German Grand Prix he returned for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Di Resta subsequently sat out the Belgian Grand Prix as Tonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil needed as much track-time as possible to get the feeling of the new parts. He participated in practice for the Italian Grand Prix, but did not participate in the Singapore or Japanese Grands Prix. The team elected that di Resta should miss the Korean Grand Prix to allow Liuzzi and Sutil to get used to the new track for the race.^[10]

Force India (2011–Present)

Di Resta joined Adrian Sutil in the Force India Formula One racing team for the 2011 season, replacing Vitantonio Liuzzi. He scored his first Formula One championship point at his first race, the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.^[11] He qualified sixth at Silverstone but finished 15th after a long pitstop due to a tyre mix-up.

At the Singapore Grand Prix, di Resta produced his best performance to date, picking up 6th place in the race and 8 points in the championship. Team mate Sutil finished in 8th place.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2003	Formula Renault UK	Eurotek Motorsport	17	1	2	1	2	233	7th
		Team JVA
2004	Formula Renault UK	Manor Motorsport	20	4	4	2	9	415	3rd
	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup		3	0	0	0	1	0	NC†
	Bahrain Superprix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2005	Formula Three Euroseries	Manor Motorsport	19	0	3	2	1	32	10th
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
2006	Formula Three Euroseries	ASM Formule 3	20	5	5	1	9	86	1st
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	1st
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
2007	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	Persson Motorsport	10	0	0	0	4	32	5th
2008	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	HWA Team	11	2	1	4	7	71	2nd
2009	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	HWA Team	10	1	1	2	3	45	3rd
2010	Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters	HWA Team	11	3	3	1	7	71	1st
	Formula One	Force India	Test driver
2011	Formula One	Force India	18	0	0	0	0	23*	14th*

^* Season in progress.
^† – As di Resta was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

Complete Formula Three Euroseries record

(key)

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pos	Points
2005	Manor Motorsport	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 17	PAU 1 14	PAU 2 DNS	SPA 1 DSQ	SPA 2 5	MCO 1 8	MCO 2 6	OSC 1 4	OSC 2 4	NOR 1 3	NOR 2 8	NÜR 1 23	NÜR 2 Ret	ZAN 1 14	ZAN 2 5	LAU 1 Ret	LAU 2 DSQ	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 DSQ	10th	32
2006	ASM Formule 3	HOC 1 3	HOC 2 Ret	LAU 1 2	LAU 2 3	OSC 1 1	OSC 2 14	BRH 1 1	BRH 2 5	NOR 1 1	NOR 2 18	NÜR 1 2	NÜR 2 13	ZAN 1 1	ZAN 2 14	CAT 1 10	CAT 2 6	BUG 1 1	BUG 2 6	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 6	1st	86

Complete DTM results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Points
2007	Persson Motorsport	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2005	HOC1 5	OSC 2	LAU 2	BRH Ret	NOR 15	MUG 3	ZAN 14	NÜR 6	CAT 3	HOC2 8		5th	32
2008	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2008	HOC1 13	OSC 4	MUG 2	LAU 1	NOR 5	ZAN 7	NÜR 2	BRH 2	CAT 1	BUG 2	HOC2 2	2nd	71
2009	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2009	HOC1 5	LAU 4	NOR 7	ZAN 6	OSC 4	NÜR Ret	BRH 1	CAT 7	DIJ 2	HOC2 3		3rd	45
2010	HWA Team	AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse 2009	HOC1 4	VAL 5	LAU 2	NOR 10	NÜR 2	ZAN 2	BRH 1	OSC 1	HOC2 1	ADR 9	SHA 2	1st	71

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2010	Force India F1 Team	Force India VJM03	Mercedes FO 108X 2.4 V8	BHR	AUS TD	MAL TD	CHN TD	ESP TD	MON	TUR	CAN	EUR TD	GBR TD	GER	HUN TD	BEL	ITA TD	SIN	JPN	KOR	BRA	ABU	–	–
2011	Force India F1 Team	Force India VJM04	Mercedes FO 108Y 2.4 V8	AUS 10	MAL 10	CHN 11	TUR Ret	ESP 12	MON 12	CAN 18†	EUR 14	GBR 15	GER 13	HUN 7	BEL 11	ITA 8	SIN 6	JPN 12	KOR 10	IND 13	ABU 9	BRA	14th*	23*

^† Driver failed to finish the race, but was classified as they had completed >90% of the race distance.
* Season in progress.

References

1. ^ "Paul di Resta profile". BBC. 2011-07-04. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/drivers_and_teams/9378342.stm. Retrieved 3 August 2011. 
2. ^ McPherson, Lynn (2010-02-07). "Racing driver takes over family's property empire". Daily Record (Trinity Mirror). http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2010/02/07/racing-driver-takes-over-family-s-property-empire-86908-22025292/. Retrieved 2010-02-08. 
3. ^ "Formula One rookie battles on in Turkey Grand Prix despite suspected suicide of stepfather". London: Daly Mail. 9 May 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385155/Paul-Di-Resta-battles-despite-stepdad-Dougie-McCrackens-death.html. Retrieved 28 May 2011. 
4. ^ English, Steven (2008-12-14). "Force India keep Fisichella and Sutil". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/72474. Retrieved 2010-01-16. 
5. ^ Strang, Simon (2009-11-24). "Force India to test di Resta, Hildebrand". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80327. Retrieved 2010-01-16. 
6. ^ Noble, Jonathan (2010-01-16). "Di Resta close to Force India role". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/80937. Retrieved 2010-01-16. 
7. ^ Elizalde, Pablo (2010-02-02). "Force India signs di Resta as reserve". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/81209. Retrieved 2010-02-02. 
8. ^ Noble, Jonathan (2010-03-24). "Di Resta ready for Formula 1 chance". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82328. Retrieved 2010-03-26. 
9. ^ "Australian Grand Prix - Practice Results". BBC Sport (BBC). 2010-03-26. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/results/8498614.stm. Retrieved 2010-03-26. 
10. ^ Elizalde, Pablo (2010-10-18). "Di Resta will not drive in Korea either". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87537. Retrieved 2010-10-19. 
11. ^ Elizalde, Pablo (2011-01-26). "Di Resta confirmed at Force India". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89078. Retrieved 2011-01-26. 

External links

• Paul di Resta career statistics at Driver Database
• Official website

Sporting positions
Preceded by Lewis Hamilton	Formula Three Euroseries Drivers' Champion 2006	Succeeded by Romain Grosjean
Preceded by Lewis Hamilton	Formula Three Masters Winner 2006	Succeeded by Nico Hülkenberg
Preceded by Timo Scheider	DTM Champion 2010	Succeeded by Incumbent
Awards
Preceded by Alex Lloyd	McLaren Autosport BRDC Award 2004	Succeeded by Oliver Jarvis

Persondata
Name	Di Resta, Paul
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	April 16, 1986
Place of birth	Uphall (Scotland)
Date of death
Place of death