EXCLUSIVE I lived my F1 dream but the sport wasn't awash with cash like it is now, says PAUL DI RESTA... Sometimes teams couldn't even pay for hotels!

Daily Mail​

05-05-2025

To live out your dream is the ultimate goal. Even for the few who achieve it, however, the dream sometimes doesn't last long enough.
Paul Di Resta knows this first hand. The Scot took the conventional racing route through karting, stepping up through Formula Renault, Formula Three, and DTM (Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters) with Mercedes.
Then came the breakthrough as he found a place within the McLaren testing team and, ultimately, Force India at Formula One level in 2010. Di Resta seemingly had everything he could have asked for.
He took part in testing for that first season, then signed a deal to become a main driver in 2011, securing points in his debut race at the Australian Grand Prix and picking up points in several more races that season. Life was good.
After two more consistent if not spectacular seasons, including a fourth-placed finish in Bahrain, Di Resta received the news that Force India would not be retaining him for the 2014 season.
The dream had come to an abrupt end.
These days Di Resta spends his weekends racing in the FIA's World Endurance Championship
'It's all about opportunity, says a now 39-year-old Di Resta. 'It depends if you can get there. There came a point where I became too old, people didn't really look at you. You don't want age to be a thing, but it is.
'With F1, you have to be right time, right place. There was a lot of difficulty at the time when I finished, going through the financial crisis, F1 wasn't in the shape it's in at the moment with sponsorship and budgets overflowing.
'I was there when it was absolutely critical that people supported it. There were times at some Grands Prix when some teams couldn't pay for hotels and whatever.
'So I probably hit it at the wrong time in that sense, that's what stopped the journey. There's the age thing, too, just getting a break. There's other people who didn't make it to Formula One who should have got there, and I keep saying that.
'I fulfilled that dream but at some point you have to move on and there's a life outside of that.'
When one door closes, another opens.
After returning to the DTM circuit and working for Sky Sports' F1 coverage for several years, Di Resta found his way into endurance racing, first at the Le Mans 24-hour race with United Autosports before settling in the FIA's World Endurance Championship from 2019 with Peugeot. He's been 'part of the furniture' there ever since.
With victory in the 2020 LMP2, as well as consistent results over the course of his first season, Di Resta was ready to write the next chapter in his career.
'Endurance racing, I believe, is the next best thing (after Formula One),' says Di Resta.
'It was the best thing in terms of my family structure. I have kids, so staying Europe based, because I had options in the US to do Indy Car, there was an element of safety there, too. So this is next thing to Formula One that people look at.
'Obviously, I'd never focused on endurance racing, what with the F1 stuff. The DTM times, it was all individual, it was all about sprint racing.
'It just came up in a conversation with (United Autosports co-owner) Zak Brown at Spa. We met each other in the paddock in August 2017, he asked if I'd be interested in doing Daytona 24. So we said let's get it on, let's speak about it.
'From there, I joined United, went there and did that. Throughout that year, I did races with them, combined that a bit with DTM. It was nice to do a dual programme. At that point it was a bit more accepted. When I was you]nger, it wasn't really accepted that you could be with one manufacturer and branch off to another manufacturer and do two championships.
'I had firm Mercedes-Benz roots. They didn't have any endurance racing so naturally you couldn't do that.
'With doing LMP2, which wasn't manufacturer-tied, that's how this started. Then, when that came to an end, hypercar started to get momentum behind it. So I signed here late 2020, and I've been part of the furniture since.'
Now into his sixth year with Peugeot, Di Resta is back driving at the top level in this type of racing.
Successive ninth-placed finishes in Qatar and then Imola have given the Scot and his team the best start to the season they could have hoped for. Even if the man from Uphall in West Lothian believes the race is deserving of a more prestigious track.
'The hypercar is the top class, the biggest thing you want to race in,' he says. 'Fortunately, I managed to get in. I was at a decent age. I'd had friends who had been part of the Peugeot programme back in the 908 days, which were hugely successful, so I knew they were serious about racing.
'I think a French brand coming in to capitalise on Le Mans, which is the biggest goal of the season, that was part of what drove me to be here.
'You'd like to finish off the journey. At the moment, the success hasn't been where we'd like it to be for the effort that's gone in. But there's still time and dedication from every individual here.
'Honestly, ninth in Qatar is the reality of where we're at. I don't think we're better than that. Our competition has built a better, faster car and you've got to applaud them.
'I honestly think the championship is way above this track (Imola). I don't think it's a place we should be coming — it's too small. There's bigger and better tracks out there on the calendar.
'Of course, you can come here and enjoy the pasta, the pizza. But is it a world championship event for the likes of this? I don't think so. There are bolder, bigger tracks; Silverstone, Monza.'
With racing blood in his veins, as a cousin of superstar drivers Dario and Marino Franchitti, Di Resta was always destined to find his way into the sport.
As he lives out a new dream, he admits he could not have reached the heights he has achieved without the help, dedication and perseverance of his family.
'Growing up in a motorsport family, it was just the norm,' he admits.
'I was surrounded by it, but I wasn't asked the question if I wanted to do it, it was more when could I start?
'Very quickly the sense was there that you could drive your way forward.
'Watching what Dario had done, you could see how you could get to the top. The ambition was always strong.
'I had a good family network around me. The family kind of make the journey more than anyone in sport for kids.
'I think it's easily forgotten that it's a kid, but it's the dedication of the family who put the time in, the sacrifice, that pays off.
'You feel sorry for those that put that sacrifice in and don't achieve it. I always say that the dream has to become the family's before it can be the individual's.'
In the case of Paul Di Resta, the dream continues.