Paul Di Resta has spoken about Williams’ decision of lining-up Sergey Sirotkin next to Lance Stroll for the upcoming F1 season. The former DTM champion, who was on the shortlist to get that second seat on the team, thinks that Williams takes a big risk with that pair of drivers.
Paul Di Resta was, next to Robert Kubica and Sergey Sirotkin, one of the candidates to get the seat at Williams that Felipe Massa had left vacant after his retirement. The Scottish driver did some tests with the team and even raced with them in the Hungarian GP replacing Massa, who was ill.
However, when the seat was assigned, Di Resta took the worst part of the deal. Sirotkin was announced as the official driver, Kubica became the reserve and developement driver and Di Resta was out of the team.
Now, the 2010 DTM champion is not linked to any F1 team and is likely to stay in the German championship. He has also spoken about Williams’ decision of lining-up Sirotkin.
“It’s a risky decision, the driver line-up, in the experience the guys have got.” Said Di Resta. “Obviously Lance has got a year under his belt, Sirotkin coming in… The key things for me is already you’ve got McLaren who are a key championship contender and Renault as a constructor should be able to beat somebody like Williams. Where does that fall within where you are in keeping the momentum?”
“Obviously as the years go on, the experience of having a Mercedes engine diminishes a bit, so they’ve got a tough ask. But there’s more to the decisions than everything that comes out and fundamentally that board sat together and took what their best was from what they had on the table, for all the reasons that come into it.”