Paul di Resta: Second chances

You're sitting on the McLaren pitwall at Monza this year watching Sebastian Vettel cruising to a stunning maiden victory for himself and Toro Rosso. Sure, the race would have been yours were it not for the wrong tyre call on Lewis Hamilton's car, but of bigger concern to you is the fact that your other machine had started alongside Vettel on the front row, yet it never gave the young German any trouble from start to finish.

What if Vettel had been driving a Ferrari? Instead of the pleasant surprise of a win for the team that used to be Minardi, McLaren could have lost vital ground in the title race. In that situation, with Hamilton mired in the second half of the grid, you'd be looking for Heikki Kovalainen to make sure the Ferrari didn't make a serious dent in your lead driver's title bid.

Of course, Vettel has proven on several occasions in his 18 months racing in Formula One that he is a special talent. So as you climb down from your perch at the end of the race, the 21-year-old's Monza performance confirms your suspicions that you need to put the last teammate to beat him over a season - Mercedes-backed Paul di Resta - in a McLaren sooner rather than later.

But with the young Scot - who beat Vettel to the F3 Euro Series crown in a straight fight as teammates in 2006 - having spent his time racing in the DTM since the start of 2007, he needs some sort of warm-up to get him used to a single-seater again.

That's where ART Grand Prix boss Frederic Vasseur, who ran di Resta and Vettel in F3, comes in. He's more than happy to give his former charge a day in a GP2 car, just to get him back up to speed. His times are slightly disguised by the fact that he matches his best lap on new tyres with an older set at the end of the day but, a few weeks later, four days of testing in the 2008 McLaren are confirmed.

Conveniently, as Vettel was getting ever stronger with Toro Rosso in the latter stages of 2008, di Resta was really getting into his stride in the DTM. He finished the season with four second places and a win from the last five races, only losing the title at the finale to long-time points leader Timo Scheider.

Adapting to F1

Paul di Resta tests the McLaren MP4-23 Mercedes at Silverstone © LAT

With his stock rising, there's been little concrete information coming through on his situation, but while his bosses work out what they want to do with him next year, a third season in the DTM is not guaranteed.

There have been claims from the likes of Jackie Stewart that a driver can't be successful moving from DTM to F1, and the only recent case study, Christijan Albers, appears to back that up. But di Resta disagrees.

"If you're a good driver you should be good in anything," he says. "It's all about adapting. People were funny about me doing the GP2 and Formula One tests before the end of the DTM season, but I think it brought me on as a driver. It's nice to work with a different car and pick up on things you haven't thought about in your own series."

A lot of drivers would struggle to deal with watching a former sparring partner hitting the big time, but di Resta manages to keep remarkably calm whenever he is asked about Vettel.

"He's done a great job, and that's no different from what I thought he'd do," he says. "But you can look back to 2006, and I beat him. I don't look into it too much, but hopefully I can get in there and race against him again."

Instead of spending his time being bitter about Vettel's road to F1 stardom, di Resta has kept his head down and worked hard, in the hope that his own ability will be rewarded.

"There's no point being uptight about anything," he says. "I'm a believer that what's for you in life is for you, and things happen for a reason, so if it works out for you then great. You just need to try to make the best of any situation."

Simple approach

That's a typically measured response from di Resta, who has a pretty simple approach to his racing. He is there to drive the car as fast as he can, and work with the team on making it better when he's not in it.

He keeps a relatively low profile out of the car on DTM weekends, whereas some of his rivals prefer to be a bit more extrovert. That often leads to him being labelled as 'less interesting' than other drivers in the paddock, although before this year's DTM finale he was repeatedly complimented on how calm he seemed ahead of the title-deciding race.

"You've got enough on your shoulders to begin with when you're racing, so I think the best way to deal with that is to be as calm as you can," he says. "I'm not one to be outspoken. Even if I'm upset about something, I try to deal with it on the inside."

Paul di Resta in the HWA Mercedes-Benz DTM car at Mugello © XPB

His approach brought him some criticism in the German press after the Hockenheim race last month. He finished second to Audi's eventual champion Scheider, but he was upset by some rather blatant delaying tactics from Scheider's teammate Mattias Ekstrom on the opening lap, which included completely missing the apex to the Turn 3 hairpin and almost coming to a stop to slow the Mercedes on the outside.

Interviewed for German TV immediately after the race, di Resta refrained from criticising Ekstrom. But in the press conference shortly after, he spoke out against more than one Audi driver that had hindered his charge. The press (most of whom cheered Ekstrom's move) blamed Mercedes for ordering him to speak out, but the marque's motorsport boss Norbert Haug says that wasn't the case.

"Paul kept his cool, because he is not normally the loud one," says Haug. "He doesn't complain, but after that race he wanted to speak out. He came to me first though, because he is a calm and concentrated guy, and he has matured a lot with us."

That cool approach was also noted by McLaren's test team after di Resta's runs in the MP4-23 on the Silverstone National circuit. In cold, wet conditions, with a car equipped with KERS and other 2009 development parts, it was a test that was far more about the car than the driver. Any botched attempts at heroics would not have gone down well, as many other young drivers who have binned cars first time out would attest.

But there was none of that from the man Haug describes as "one cool agent", and it's likely to earn him a test where he can unleash his real speed at some point this winter.

McLaren's test team manager Indy Lall says: "Paul was there on merit of what he's achieved so far in F3 and DTM, and he realised that. He had nothing to prove to us, and he did the job just right. He was terrific, didn't make a single mistake, and he made a good impression with the engineers."

Haug adds: "The worst thing he could have done would be to destroy the car. He found the fine line between being quick and precise."

The GP2 and F1 tests came ahead of the DTM title showdown, but di Resta disagrees with concerns that returning to single-seaters hurt him when he climbed back into his Mercedes C-class.

"People seem to forget that under the body, we're not driving a C-class," he says. "For the first ten laps in the GP2 car I did think, 'wow, this is a bit strange,' but after that it all came back to me pretty quickly."

With rumours of a seat with Force India failing to go away, the next few weeks and months could be very interesting in shaping the future of Paul di Resta's career. Some people would try to warn him off joining the F1 grid at the back, but if the opportunity arose with any team towards the rear of the field, di Resta confirms that he would seize the moment.

Paul di Resta leads ASM teammate Sebastian Vettel in the 2006 F3 Euroseries race at the Lausitzring © XPB

"What's a bad team to drive for?" he asks. "The driver has to make the best of what he has. You've got to be beating your teammate on a regular basis, then you can make a case for the car holding you back. It's a difficult one, but I'm up for the challenge if that occurs."

Despite the different paths their careers have taken since di Resta beat Vettel to that F3 title in 2006, he has no regrets about keeping his ties with Mercedes and hopping off the single-seater ladder.

"These two years have brought me on as a driver, so it was a nice move," he says. "I've developed a car, which you don't get to do in a lot of places outside of F1 now, and Mercedes have pushed me on. I've loved being part of it, and I think it's worked out for me."

Having made such an impact in DTM and impressed in so many other areas in his career, di Resta has done all he can, in front of the right people. It might just turn out that the smiling German he beat in 2006 could be the final piece of the puzzle that gets him the F1 drive he craves.