Di Resta eyes Vettelposted in F115 | 11 | 2010
BATHGATE'S PAUL di Resta has congratulated former team-mate Sebastian Vettel on winning the Formula One World Championship, but the Scot is ready to take the scalp of his rival next season.
Di Resta is still locked in discussions regarding being promoted from test driver to a full race seat with Force India next year, but the 24-year-old is now even hungrier to go wheel-to-wheel with the German.
"I have to congratulate my former Euro Formula 3 team-mate Sebastian on winning his first title," Di Resta said today as he prepared for four days of testing at the Yas Marina track in Abu Dhabi.
"He's been impressive right through the year, did everything he needed to do in Sunday's race and then pocketed the title when everything else fell into place for him.
"It's worth remembering though that I beat him to the Euro F3 title in identical cars, and hopefully we can go racing against each other again next year ... but this time in Formula One."
Di Resta destroyed Vettel in the 2006 Euro F3 Championship. But while the German, bankrolled then by BMW, was immediately shoehorned into a test seat with Sauber, before switching to Toro Rosso and ultimately Red Bull, the Scot found himself in DTM with Mercedes.
It's widely expected Di Resta will replace Tonio Liuzzi in the Force India car next year. The Italian, whose season has been punctuated with mistakes, didn't help his cause when he was involved in a collision with Michael Schumacher's Mercedes on the opening lap on Sunday.
Tomorrow and Wednesday mornings Di Resta will drive the Force India car in the post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix test. In the afternoons he will be replaced by two young drivers, Dutchman Yelmer Buurman (23) and Antonio Felix da Costa, the Portuguese 19-year-old.
Buurman has been competing in the Superleague Formula series this season, while da Costa finished top rookie in the Euro F3 Championship.
In addition to helping the team gather information from their final runs on Bridgestone tyres before they switch to Pirelli for next season, the Scot will also set baseline times for the two youngsters to pitch themselves against.
Di Resta will then return to action in the Force India car on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning driving in the Pirelli test.
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Jim McGill