Paul di Resta: How will he do?

[woody2goody]

How does everyone think the Scotsman will get on in his first season of F1?

I think he'll do ok, but not spectacularly in 2011, and then push on from there. I think if he can get 5 or 6 points finishes he'll have done well given the expected performance of the car.

I think his DTM career will help him in terms of already being a fairly big name in Germany, and he seems to have the temperament to succeed at the highest level.

[Garry Walker]

In lower series he was better than Vettel, lets hope DTM has not ruined him.

[keysersoze]

Solid but unspectacular. The problem is that that isn't good enough--nowadays a driver needs to be scintillating or we write them off.

Plus, he's not in a car that can perform well on all the tracks. The teams F1 compete with--STR and Sauber--have had a better off-season, and perhaps Lotus have caught them as well.

[Sonic]

Based on today he'll do just fine, but I have to agree he's laible to get overlooked, even if his performances are solid, as he'll be lucky to qualify that car 15th as it seems to have lost ground to the midfield.

[I am evil Homer]

The best barometer will be his team mate. If he's close or beating him then he's good enough, whether the car is in istelf competitve is another matter.

[jens]

We know that in F1 everything has to be absolutely perfect to really perform at an impressive level. F1 is so complicated and every detail counts. Even Hülkenberg, who had been impressive in lower categories, took half a season to get to grips with F1 last year. And nowadays we have much less testing than in the past. I think the main challenge for di Resta is that he has been out of single-seaters for 4 years. It is not quite the Schumacher-way of being completely out of sport for three years, but it is still a completely different ball-game. It will be a serious challenge for Paul to adapt quickly, so if he can impress on his debut season, he will have done very well. I believe he has talent, but let's see, how well can he adapt and uptap it.

[woody2goody]

The best barometer will be his team mate. If he's close or beating him then he's good enough, whether the car is in istelf competitve is another matter.

Spot on, and I think he's got a shot at beating Sutil who isn't my favourite driver.

[Robinho]

decent race from Di Resta, was ahead or just behind Sutil pretty much all race, and ran well in the points for a while. i hope the car improves a little, i think he could do ok. he's a good driver, better than a few others who have managed a couple of years already IMO, so hopefully he'll stick around

[MrJan]

Sutil is a quality driver so to be near him on his first race is quite promising. Interesting to hear him on the F1 Forum (red button) admitting that he made quite a few mistakes, particularly on in laps, that cost him dearly. Not something that drivers usually do and it's great to hear him say stuff like "I think it's my own performance that needs work" rather than blaming the car, tyres or the stewards.

[Daniel]

it's great to hear him say stuff like "I think it's my own performance that needs work" rather than blaming the car, tyres or the stewards.

Perhaps he should have got the team to ask the stewards?