No Suzuka running for di Resta

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Paul di Resta will not participate in first practice at Suzuka for Force India next week.

The British driver has driven for the team in practice eight times this year but did not do so at Singapore last week:

Unfortunately I won’t be out in FP1 in Japan, for similar reasons to Singapore – it’s such an important time in the year that we need to play the team game and give ourselves every advantage we can.

Plus the team will have some new aero tweaks to try out so Adrian and Tonio need the time to get used to them and give some feedback for the race.
Paul di Resta

Adrian Sutil added his praise for the Suzuka track which is popular with many of the drivers:

The track itself is a real driver’s circuit. There is just about every corner you could imagine and each one presents its own challenges.

The 130R is just awesome. You’re just flat out in seventh and it bends so you are completely on the limit. It really rewards you if you get it right – I can remember last year taking it in the wet at almost dry level of speed, just the best feeling.
Adrian Sutil

Although the team struggled in Singapore Sutil is expecting a better result this weekend:

Last year we had a pretty promising event in Suzuka. I was fourth on the grid, which was really good, but then we had all the penalties for the yellow flag incident so I started eighth and the race didn’t turn out really well. But all the same the pace was there and we could again show everyone that we were serious racers.

I believe it should be possible to have a decent result there this year. Although the car is more competitive on all types of tracks now, we do still have more of an advantage on the low downforce configurations so I would hope we’d be as competitive as we were at Spa and Monza this year.

Top ten in qualifying and then in the race are possible and we’ve got to do it as the pressure is really on to keep sixth in the constructors’ championship.
Adrian Sutil

Vitantonio Liuzzi is also looking forward to racing on a “real man’s circuit”:

I know Suzuka well as I raced there in 2006 and then again last year. It’s one of the old-school circuits still left in the championship like Spa and Monza – it’s a real man’s circuit and one of the toughest of the year.

We saw last year that the wet conditions can also really upset the balance so it takes every bit of concentration you have and you must be on the top of your game. I really enjoy the high-speed technical corners, especially the first sequence where you have to be very accurate.
Vitantonio Liuzzi

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    Keith Collantine
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    14 comments on “No Suzuka running for di Resta”

    1. Its Hammer time
      1st October 2010, 11:56

      Liuzzi should be refused admittance to a real man’s circuit.

      Get Di Resta in the car VJ, you won’t regret it

      1. hahahaha lol’d

        I’d like to see some comparisons over the year of Di Resta’s times compared to Liuzzi’s and Sutils for that matter.

      2. Yeas I was also thinking to myself
        * So the rest of the venues are ‘real whiners-about-traffic circuits’? *

    2. It’s a shame 130R is easier than it used to be because of modern downforce levels, like Eau Rouge. Tighten the corner and restore it to its glory!

      1. Or just cut the downforce….or increase the engine power? That would solve the Eau Rouge problem too!

      2. Its not only because of downforce, they also altered the corner it after McNish had a big’un there in 2002.

    3. Liuzzi will be discontinued for next year. Too bad they couldn’t do that sooner!

    4. Nice to see Sutil genuinly enthusiastic for the track (like mostt fans). Just let us hope they make a nice race out of it on track this time.

    5. He’s not actually got into the car as much as I thought was implied when it was originally announced. They always have another excuse.

      Don’t get me wrong, an average of one in every two isn’t bad, indeed for a test/third driver it’s by far the best on the grid, but still.

    6. I think that perhaps Liuzzi and Sutil are being given equal cracks of the whip in order to give Vitantonio a shot at proving he deserves the race seat again next season.

    7. I’m not buying the hype behind di Resta. Sure, hes doing very well in DTM, but then Bourdais did very well in cart, Piqeust Jnr did well in GP2.

      I know this will spark debate, but it does help his cause that hes British. Any British driver with even a whiff of possibly entering F1 is talked up as gods gift, and this is pushed with the media.

      A huge reason why us viewers outside of the UK were happy when James Allen was not commentating anymore was we would get a rundown during the race on how all the drivers were going, not just the British.

    8. No surprises there as I think the team is using the information to build next year’s car, Luizzi needs to do more to keep his seat

    9. There is no need to get excited about di resta Yeah hes good in practice. But he could turn out to be another Anthony Davidson and he couldn’t even beat Sato.

    10. If Petrov is out from Renault, I would like to see him in FI as he will bring some money. At the same time he is better than Liuzzi.

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