Mercedes eyes Di Restaposted in F121 | 05 | 2012

MERCEDES GP HAS confirmed it is considering Bathgate's Paul di Resta as a replacement for seven-times world champ Michael Schumacher next season.

It has long been suspected that the 26-year-old Scot is the preferred choice at Mercedes, should Schumacher retire at the end of this season, but today's confirmation is the first official response by the team.

"Paul's on our radar," Mercedes CEO Nick Fry confirmed today. "He has done a fantastic job, he's a nice guy, he's a great team player and he would be one of the drivers undoubtedly that, if Michael were to decide he didn't want to continue, we would look at.

"We haven't reached that time in our thinking yet, but we have all got a lot of admiration for Paul."

Tyre battle for Di Resta in Spain

As questions continue to grow over the future of Schumacher in F1 — a situation not helped by his collision into the rear of Bruno Senna's Williams in Spain last weekend — Di Resta has long been linked to the seat.

A protegee of the Mercedes Young Driver Development Programme, the Scot won the 2006 Euro F3 Championship in a Mercedes-powered car.

The former McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year then switched to DTM where he won the championship for Merecdes in 2010.

Interestingly, Mercedes' first official reference to Di Resta being one of the drivers they would "look at", comes days after the Scot was linked with replacing Felipe Massa at Ferrari.

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Jim McGill