Di Resta “frustrated” after wheel nut problem

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Paul di Resta said the Malaysian Grand Prix was a missed opportunity after retiring from the race.

Di Resta was forced to retire after a very long pit stop during which the team struggled to change his front-left tyre. The team eventually retired both cars due to wheel nut problems.

“The big thing is obviously, we’ve missed a big opportunity as a team,” said Di Resta after the race. “I think given our performance the whole weekend, we showed very strong.”

“We obviously got stuck behind Adrian at the first pit stop and lost about 15 seconds. But we were fighting, we were were coming back through strongly. At points probably the second or third quickest car on the track.”

“It’s a bit frustrating because I think ultimately without that we would probably have got about a seventh place. We go away from here with frustration.

“Hopefully we can address the situation for China but we’ll come back fighting. The car essentially is looking quite strong and the next three weeks can’t come quick enough in my books.”

Team owner Vijay Mallya said: “Unfortunately things went wrong in the pits when we experienced an issue with our captive wheel nut system at the first stop, which resulted in major delays for both cars.”

“The issue occurred again at the second stop and it became apparent we would not be able to solve it during the race. As a precaution we were forced to retire both cars and will have a full investigation.”

2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Image © Force India

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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21 comments on “Di Resta “frustrated” after wheel nut problem”

  1. Did Sutil not have the same problem though? Which is why both cars were retired? Before everyone has a rant about Di Resta…

    1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
      24th March 2013, 12:50

      Yep.

  2. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    24th March 2013, 12:42

    I feel quite bad for both Paul and Adrian. They both had the pace to get a good haul of points.

    I still think that Sutil would have beaten him, but I especially sympathize with Paul, just because of how much he’s taken a beating in the public forums lately.

    1. Today both can certainly feel the wheel nut disappointed them and took a good chance at a solid race away from them.

    2. It was a close one with the two today…
      But after Di Resta and Sutil got squished together after the first stops, Di Resta got past Sutil fair and square after a couple of laps.

      Of course, Di Resta wouldn’t have been that close if Sutil’s stop went better, but it showed that, at this stint of the race, Di Resta had a better pace than Sutil.

      1. Not so sure that it was so straight. If you follow the live timing, you can ses that sutil stayed behind in the drs window some laps. I imagined that he let pass him to be in some sleapstream then preserving tires because using drs in the straights and gentle in curves. This might be wrong cause he pitted Just after his teammate, but i found strange sutil passed, not very normal looking all the picture.

  3. Just…once…can’t you keep shut just once? Your teammate suffered the same problem…he’s quiet…

    1. Sutil said the same. I suppose he should have ignored the interview completely and not said anything.

    2. Now, I do think Di Resta is too quick to shove off responsibility to someone else in general, in this case he is a) right about it and b) his teammate is saying exactly the same as the link posted by @electrolite shows.
      So I really do not see the problem with Di Resta being disappointed not to have been able to finish the race in a good points paying position @wsrgo

      1. @bascb Well, he already has a reputation of being a sort of a…tantrum-thrower, complain-box, whiner..whichever way you put it. Drivers who think they are future champions, should a)learn how to drive like a champion and b) learn that the ‘team’ includes him as well. There have been several occasions of him performing poorly, but the ‘team’ haven’t really targeted him for being poor, have they? Why does Paul think he is the greatest member of his team, and everybody at the Silverstone base exists to service him?

        1. @wsrgo, your comment describes why you have little patience with him, not why its fair to him in this situation

    3. grow up with the di resta hate.

  4. It funny how you put up this article with Paul’s quotes and not Sutil’s. Didnt both the cars had the same issue. I dont like the excuses Paul often puts up but this seems valid. I mean, why did FI had both Adrian and Paul pit at the same lap. Paul lost lot of time there behind Sutil. And when he seemed to catch up speed and got past Sutil, he was asked to retire. Anyone would be “frustrated” to lose out like this. I think this article is here deliberately to stir anti-Paul comments rather than to actually say wat happened during the pitstops that both cars had to retire. Obviously no one would have much to say if it was Sutil’s comments.

    1. I think its rather more the case that Keith had Di Resta’s comments available when writing this and not Sutils @1abe. And if you read the first comments on the article those are both commenting that it was the same for both drivers and that they feel bad about both of them, so I would hardly say “

      I think this article is here deliberately to stir anti-Paul comments rather than to actually say wat happened during the pitstops that both cars had to retire. Obviously no one would have much to say if it was Sutil’s comments

      is even close to being accurate.

      1. Keith does not like di resta, it is a fact, he very often write articles that drive people to share his dislike. Take the three last paper for example. But i don’t like him too, like many, maybe because of keith :)

        1. Ubik, show me where Keith ever shows any dislike of Di Resta. There are just as many saying he is too positive of the guy, as there are feeling he is too critical of him!

    2. One imagines that Force India’s media people probably send Di Resta to talk to the British press and Sutil to talk to the German press. So probably Keith ran with di Resta’s quote because it was in English.

  5. I think if you read the interview, the three of them pretty much say the same thing – Mallya (very disappointing end, it’s frustrating), Sutil (it’s a shame, disappointment of today), PdR (it’s frustrating, take this on the chin and come back fighting).

  6. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    24th March 2013, 16:43

    Where is Mallya getting the team’s tools? On HRT stock or in Kingfisher Airlines?

    1. It did cross my mind that it looked a bit like symptons of running out of money.

  7. I feel a bit sorry for di Resta atm, when he started in f1 the media overhyped him because he is British – so fans took a dislike to the hype. He is not very media savvy, this has made more people dislike him. He outqualified Sutil in Oz and would have finished ahead if not for team orders and gets no credit. Today he was racing well before retiring. He’s not a world beater but he hasn’t got the credit he should have thus far this year.

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