Challenges ahead for Paul di Resta as he drives into unknown territory

The problem for Di Resta, however, is as we head into the second half of the campaign, he will tackle tracks he has never previously driven.

As reserve driver for Force India last year, as part of his integration with the team, Di Resta drove in eight of the Friday morning practice sessions.

However, when the season moved out of Europe and returned to the fly-away races, Di Resta was forced to look on at Singapore, Japan, Korea, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Throw in India's debut this season, although that will be a level playing field as no-one will have set rubber on that track prior to the grand prix weekend, and it means Di Resta has no experience of the final six tracks for this year.

Assessing his maiden season to date, in particular after scoring points in the opening two races, Di Resta said: "It was very positive at the beginning.

"There have been some definite highs and lows, but I think standing from the outside, you can generally be quite pleased with it.

"The good thing is I seem to be relatively competitive to my team- mate (Adrian Sutil]. We are going forward and hopefully I can just build upon that, but at the end of the year it will be a difficult step.

"All the tracks we will be going to will be new to me. I won't have raced on any of them."

Ahead of what he concedes is "the biggest race of my career" with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Di Resta was as frustrated as anyone else with the weather conditions.

Rain that varied in degree throughout the day blighted the two 90-minute practice sessions, with Di Resta completing just 25 laps, in particular just seven during a sodden afternoon run. "The track was wet all day so we didn't get a chance to do any dry running," said Di Resta.

"It was also quite windy and conditions were not really consistent enough to do much useful running."

Di Resta, though, at least came away feeling positive, adding: "We seem quite competitive, and the balance of the car felt good right from the start of the day.

"It's a shame to have missed out on some dry track time, but everybody is in the same position.

"It means we will have a lot of work to do tomorrow - assuming it is dry."