Di Resta gets F1 pointposted in F129 | 03 | 2011
BATHGATE'S PAUL DI RESTA has been confirmed as a Formula One World Championship points-scorer after Sauber decided not to appeal is exclusion from Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.
The 24-year-old Scot took the chequered flag on his F1 debut in Melbourne in 12th place, one position behind his Force India team-mate Adrian Sutil.
But hours after the race finished, the Saubers of both Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi — who had originally finished seventh and eighth in the race — were disqualified for infringements relating to the rear wings of their cars.
The team then announced it intended to appeal the decision of the stewards who found the radius on the upper rear wing element on the cars contravened the regulations by a few millimetres.
But today it confirmed it would not go ahead with an appeal, even though it believes the infringement did not mean any performance advantage.
"It did not bring us any performance advantage, but the fact is it was a deviation from the regulations. We take note of the stewards' decision," technical director James Key said.
"We have since found that there was an error in the checking process for the relevant dimension on this component. We have already put measures in place to ensure that nothing of this kind occurs again in the future."
And the news was naturally welcomed by Di Resta, already back in the UK preparing for the next double-header in Malaysia and China in less than 10 days.
"It's fantastic now to be confirmed as a world championship points-scorer on my Formula One debut," the Scot, who is the 59th driver to score a point on their F1 debut, said. "I was satisfied to originally finish 12th in my first race, but to be told on Sunday I'd been promoted to 10th was great.
"Obviously then there were doubts, and I wasn't able to really celebrate because Sauber said they were going to appeal the stewards' decision.
"But today's announcement that they have decided not to appeal means I'm now officially in the recordbooks as an F1 points scorer. Now I have to focus on building on this platform for the rest of the year.
"Of course, it's not just great for me, but it's a super start to the season for the team having both drivers score points in the first race.
"As I've said before, we know the car needs a little more speed, but we also know that it's coming due to the developments we're carrying out.
"But scoring points in my first race: that's pretty mega."
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Jim McGill