Fromula 1: Paul di Resta loses out in reshuffle

AS THE silly season nears its end, and Formula One’s annual game of musical chairs draws to a close, Paul di Resta finds himself sitting in the same faded hotseat that he’s occupied for the past two years.

Despite all the activity and all of the high hopes, the longed-for and much-discussed spot at Ferrari, McLaren or Mercedes has failed to materialise. A third year at Force India is now virtually assured for the Bathgate driver.

It is, he says, a bitter disappointment, especially as the gaps appeared in exactly the way he had hoped. After superannuated former world champion Michael Schumacher finally decided to step away from the grid three years into a distinctly lacklustre comeback, the scene was set for the Scot to move up to one of the leading teams. But, instead of opting for Di Resta, his old friend Norbert Haug at Mercedes opted to spend the GDP of a small African country to hire Lewis Hamilton.

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Across at Woking, McLaren looked long and hard at their former test driver Di Resta but, mindful of the need to woo sponsors from outside the UK, decided that they didn’t want to have two British drivers. It also helped that they have had their head turned by the lightning quick form of Sergio Perez, so it was no surprise when they recruited the Mexican to drive alongside Jenson Button next year. Equally disappointingly for the Scot, after their pursuit of Mark Webber was rebuffed, Ferrari have given the profoundly underwhelming Brazilian Felipe Massa – who, despite a recent upturn in fortunes, still has just one podium to his name this season and who currently trails his team-mate Fernando Alonso by a whopping 128 points – one extra year of wearing the Prancing Horse, leaving the door open for world champion Sebastian Vettel in a year’s time.

“I definitely feel I’m ready for a title tilt,” said a deflated Di Resta. “There is always disappointment because I’ve always said I want to be in a car that’s winning races and championships, and the team [Force India] said they would not hold me back if something came up. I’ve still got time though. I’m only 26, although do you get to a point where you want to be on the podium, where you want to be winning races on a regular basis.”

Winning races on an irregular basis would be a good start, even if that is always going to be a struggle at a mid-range team like Force India. Di Resta’s desire to secure a lucrative move to a bigger team hasn’t been helped, however, by his sluggish form. He has yet to get on the podium this season and, far more significantly, going into his team’s home Grand Prix at the one-year-old Buddh circuit, 50 kilometres outside Delhi, he is trailing rookie team-mate Nico Hulkenburg by a point.

Although Massa’s impending jettisoning by Ferrari at the end of next year will open up a seat at either Ferrari or Red Bull (where there could be two openings if 37-year-old Mark Webber finally decides to call it a day), Di Resta now faces two extra challenges. The first is the emergence of Hulkenburg, who is a natural commercial fit for teams using Mercedes engines, and the re-emergence of a rejuvenated and newly enthused former world champion Kimi Raikkonen at Lotus. The taciturn Finn, the surprise package of the year since his return from an unsuccessful stint in the World Rally Championship, was the highest-paid driver in F1 when Ferrari paid him £32 million a year when he won the world championship for them in 2007. He is currently third in the Drivers Championship and has yet to confirm his plans for 2013, although his room for trading up is non-existent with the top four teams already full. The second is the parlous financial position of Di Resta’s current team, which may mean the Scot could even find himself without a drive if Force India goes under. That is not entirely fanciful. Co-owner and team principal Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airline is believed to be £1.5 billion in debt, failed to pay its employees last month, has had its license suspended and is rumoured to be close to an implosion that could suck Force India under. Certainly, Hulkenburg’s widely-anticipated move to replace Perez at Sauber, whose cars have been about as quick as Force India’s this season, lends credence to rumours that Mallya’s team may not be on the grid next year.

It is a situation that is deeply worrying for the Scot, who has been left to rue the fact that McLaren, the team for which he tested and which was seen by many in Formula One as his natural home, decided against fielding a pair of Brits after Hamilton’s departure at the end of the season. It is almost enough to turn the driver into a card-carrying SNP voter. “I should have reminded McLaren that I’m Scottish,” joked Di Resta. “I’m one of the British drivers, but I’m not sitting there in charge and making the ultimate decisions. There are aspects of Formula 1 that not everybody will understand – timing, I suppose, timing is key.”

The same also applies to Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, a man who has no wish to move from his very plush seat. He may, however, have no choice, given that he may be sued for £250m by a German bank which claims he caused them to accept an artificially low bid for the rights to F1 by bribing one of their senior employees with £27m, a course of action which in June landed the employee with an eight-and-a-half year jail sentence. Prosecutors in Munich are also understood to be deciding whether Ecclestone should face criminal charges.

The revelations, which became public when it emerged that a firm of elite headhunters was approaching possible replacements in case Ecclestone is charged, could barely come at a worse time for Ecclestone, who turns 82 today, and for Formula One, which is in the process of launching on the Singapore Stock Exchange.

Grid Top Ten

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 215pts

2 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 209

3 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus 167

4 Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren 153

5 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 152

6 Jenson Button (GB) McLaren 131

7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 93

8 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus 88

9 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 81

10 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber 66