Mercedes DTM star di Resta, 22, screamed around Silverstone in a McLaren-Merc for another two days earlier this week.
The young Scot said: ‘The test went really well. I did all that McLaren asked me to do — and that’s all I can do.’
Di Resta, who counts Lewis Hamilton’s father Anthony among his management team, has been linked with a possible permanent testing role at McLaren.
And there have been whispers he may be ‘placed’ with minnows Force India for the 2009 season to learn the F1 circuits.
And he said: ‘I have to put the Formula 1 talk to one side because I want that DTM title.”
‘It is terribly important to me to win the championship. I want to win at every level I compete at.’
He’s already being touted as Scotland’s Lewis Hamilton, but Bathgate’s Paul Di Resta isn’t allowing the speculation surrounding his elevation into the hallowed circles of Formula One to distract him from his immediate priority – winning the German Touring Car Championship this weekend.
“I know there are suddenly lots and lots of people beginning to get a bit carried away with rumours, hints, guesses and pure speculation surrounding what I’m going to be doing next season,” the 22-year-old said. “But the only thing I’m thinking about for the next five days is the final race in the German Touring Car Championship (DTM) at Hockenheim this weekend.
“I know I’ve been testing the McLaren Formula One car this week for the second time, but that’s a completely different exercise to what is my sole priority at the moment, and that’s winning the DTM championship for Mercedes. It may appear difficult for people to accept, but that’s the straightforward truth. Next season is next season, I’ll deal with that soon enough, but certainly not before the weekend.” There’s no denying Di Resta, a member of the Mercedes Young Driver Development Programme, has suddenly been catapulted into the minds of many Scots over the past couple of weeks.
Just as Scotland’s only current F1 driver David Coulthard counts down the days to his retirement at the end of next Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, so the hype surrounding Di Resta’s projected elevation into F1 has become more intense.
UPDATE: October 25, 2008 06:08 am
Scot Paul Di Resta goes for glory in the German Touring Car Championship finale this weekend.
Di Resta said: “That’s what I’m aiming to do because although Timo Scheider and I would be tied on points I’d have won three races to his two.
“I know it’s going to be tough but I’m up for the fight.”
If it all goes to plan for the driver touted as Scotland’s Lewis Hamilton, it would further increase the speculation that di Resta is bound for F1 next season.
He said: “Don’t think of me as another Lewis Hamilton. I am Paul di Resta and if I’m going to make a name in Formula One it will be my name, no one else’s.”
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