There are a lot of stories floating about saying that Paul di Resta is about to be announced as one of the Force India drivers for 2011. This is interesting as all my sources continue to say that there is still no settlement with Tonio Liuzzi, who is contracted to race for the team. There is also no question that Liuzzi’s points total in 2010 was disappointing, but closer inspection of the circumstances reveal that he did very little wrong and was on the pace of Adrian Sutil – and sometimes ahead – when his car was running without technical problems. The team has said as much, notably in October when deputy team principal Robert Fernley told the F1 media in an FIA press conference in Japan that “we are comfortable with the drivers we have”. Fernley was then asked whether this applied to 2011 as well and he replied “yes”. In the same press conference Fernley admitted that “Tonio has had a problem with the mechanical and aero packages in the car throughout the season, and we work hard to try and correct them for him. There are times when it all clicks together and other times he’s still struggling a little bit with it, but it is fundamentally something we have to keep working on with him.” It is thus difficult to imagine how the team could argue that Liuzzi did not do as much as he could.
It is very clear that Force India wants to sign Paul di Resta. It is not clear why they believe that the F1 debutant, who has not raced a single-seater for five years, would be able to do a better job than Liuzzi, who has a great deal of F1 experience, which should be an advantage. There are, of course, other possible explanations for the decision, notably that di Resta is a Mercedes-Benz favourite and one might suppose that there will be financial benefits for the Mercedes-engined team if it agrees to run di Resta in 2011. There is no doubt also that di Resta’s manager Anthony Hamilton (father of Lewis) will have been talking up the Scotsman.
The team has to be a little careful as there is a danger that if it cannot reach a settlement with Liuzzi that the Italian could apply for an injunction if Force India nominates two race drivers for 2011 and he is not one of them. That could stop the team going testing in the vital pre-season period, which is obviously not going to help as the car is not being launched until the Jerez test on February 10. If there is a driver announcement coming therefore we will see how confident the team is in its legal position as di Resta could be nominated, but no announcement made about Sutil. This would leave open the possibility that Liuzzi might race and so delay possible legal activities. If the team names both Sutil and Di Resta then Liuzzi will have nothing to lose. His only real hope of an F1 drive now is with Force India buying his the last available seat at HRT.
Liuzzi cannot stop the team terminating his contract if it chooses to do so, but he can ask for a suitable settlement. If no attempt is made to find a solution then he is left with few choices apart from trying to stop the team going ahead without him by forcing a settlement. Any legal action against the team would be embarrassing for Vijay Mallya, who is a billionaire and so should be able to scrape together sufficient cash to pay off Liuzzi, or to pay HRT to take the Italian off his hands. Mallya, however, has shown a tendency over the years not to part with money until absolutely the last possible moment, which in some cases has meant after legal action.
One way or the other the Silverstone team is moving towards a point at which a decision must be made and if it is the wrong decision that could impact on the team’s ability to compete in 2011 – which would be plain stupid.
A lot of the time it’s not clear why any debutant would be better than any incumbent until they’ve actually had a race in a Formula 1 car. And yet somehow new drivers make it into the sport. Personally I think there’s more justification for replacing Liuzzi with di Resta than there is Hulkenberg with Maldonado, but it’s all horribly subjective.
Anyway, I don’t understand why, if there’s the possibility of Liuzzi being bought an HRT drive they don’t just sit di Resta in the HRT for one season as a place to learn the ropes in relative quiet and then revisit the situation in one year when contracts may be up.
As much as I think Liuzzi’s getting the rough end of the stick here, it’s probably for the best that he ends up out – it’s been obvious for a while that the team don’t want him for some reason, and it’s never good to stick around in a team that doesn’t want you.
Mallya does have a tendency to go off drivers rather quickly, doesn’t he? He picked Fisi after the trials at Jerez over Liuzzi (and Montagny, Ralf, Roldan Rodriguez and Klien), but then gave Tonio a pre-contract deal when he became test driver and tried to get rid of Fisi after not long but had to wait until he went to Ferrari.
And then when he finally did get what he wanted (Liuzzi in a race seat), almost immediately rumours started circulating that he wanted to get rid of Tonio (despite him doing nothing wrong) and had di Resta doing practices. And yet Sutil’s future has never been doubted (presumably because of the sponsorship he brings). So what next? Is Paul going to find himself out under threat after about 3 races with Hulkenberg waiting in the wings?
I’m chuffed for Paul. I’ve always rated him highly and was mystified when he ended up in the DTM in 2007 while the guy he beat in the same team, Vettel, ended up in F1. But the way it’s come about does leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth, as Tonio doesn’t deserve to get the chop like this, considering he did little wrong all year.
And the sad thing is while you can rebound once from being dropped out of F1, it’s very difficult to do it twice. So that may be it for him as far as F1 goes. Not a great way to end your F1 career – on top of Michael Schumacher…
I suspect a decision has already been made. If Force India was intending to keep Tonio Liuzzi as a race driver, there would be no reason to host a press conference in Glasgow. I just hope that the resulting mess from *this* gamble isn’t too much of a mess and that Tonio can salvage something reasonable career-wise (I’m not convinced he’d be better than Paul but F1 would be stronger for him being, for example, Timo Glock’s team-mate at Virgin, and currently the second-best-case racing scenario for Tonio is worse than that).
I remember when Liuzzi entered F1 with talk of a Ferrari contract and his great F3000 season….
But he’s never looked convincing in an F1 car in my mind. I am of the opinion that a great talent always shines through and although i think Tonio is a nice guy, i think Di Resta may well do a better job.
When I first heard of this Force India/Tonio Liuzzi fiasco I had to wonder why he had a 2yr contract in the first place. He’s a good driver but not great and teams should always be trying to get the best drivers every year… finances permitting of course (Williams/Sauber).
Force India don’t seem to have money troubles and Liuzzi dosen’t look like being one of the greats so why not just have him on a rolling 1yr deal and if someone better comes along (Hulkenberg/Heidfeld) or they simply want to try someone else (di Resta) then they are free to choose without any legal dramas.
I’m on the fence as far as Liuzzi is concerned as I haven’t seen anything outstanding from him yet but I have absolutely no sympathy for Force India’s situation. It’s their own fault that they’re in this position.
I don’t understand how not naming Liuzzi as a race driver can possibly affect the team’s ability to test.
Liuzzi has had his shots(!) at being a F1 driver. So far, he hasn’t set the world on fire, and there’s no indication that another year will change that.
So from a competition point of view, Paul di Resta may be a higher risk candidate for the seat, but at least he has potential. As a team, it would probably be more appealing to me too, to partner a solid racer like Sutil or even Liuzzi with a young gun that shows promise.
Too bad Force India thought it necessary to contract Liuzzi for 2011, I guess he really had some one high up in that organization convinced that he was the ‘real deal’ when that contract was negotiated. Kudos to Tonio’s managers, I guess!
Surely Tonio would be best to take a healthy payout and step aside gracefully? I have a lot of admiration for him – he’s one of the few characters left in the sport – but di Resta is a) Merc alumni and b) bloody quick, as proved in last year’s Friday sessions. And what’s the point of forcing your way back into a team that doesn’t really want you?
Is it at all possible that Force India will employ Liuzzi and Di Resta, dumping Sutil? He’s not actually confirmed yet, is he? If not, doesn’t that seem strange? I’d say the same for the Toro Rosso drivers….
There is no need to “talk up” di Resta as he beat the current world champion to the F3 Euroseries title – had he been German, the son of an ex-F1 driver or had big money backers he would have been in F1 long ago rather than kicking his heels in the DTM for so long…
Brian,
Be that as it may, he is still five years out of single=seaters and may never catch up in terms of experience
It’s also moving in to a position of damaging the brands on the side of the car – which are his own so he should wake up. All I hear about Force India is negative. If they’re desperate for Merc engines then they should come up with a creative solution. Not more BS
Joe, the greatest defender of Tonio Liuzzi!
Romford,
No, there are others with stronger feelings than I have.
If Liuzzi has a contract and as you say was just as quick as Suti why not keep him instead of Sutil. Is he confirmed yet cause I haven’t heard anything. I never rated Sutil.
Surely there has to be some link between employing a Scottish driver and owning a whisky distillery in Scotland!!
I think Luizzi is another journeyman F1 driver who, whilst showing good speed at times, hasn’t ever strung enough consistency, or progress together to move forward, and in many respects can be considered lucky to have got the drive in the first place. Indeed, if testing wasn’t banned, he may not have been in the frame. Another reason why the testing ban isn’t so clever.
The obvious MB pressure/link with di Resta will be beneficial to Force India, especially with the new engine regs for 2013 – better to keep an engine manufacturer happy if possible.
One has to ask how Luizzi managed to get a two-year contract without a clear (and cheap) break clause? Credit must go to his manager for that one!
And to cover the point made ealier by Toby, Sutil brings a few million Euro from his backers, Mdeion Computers.
Ian Pee,
Try analysing things a little more and you may find a different answer.
I wish someone would explain why Force India signed Luizzi on a multi year contract? It’s very much a buyers market – has been for some time. I’d understand if it was a potential superstar – but
that isn’t the case with any of these drivers.
Joe, we could “analyse deeper” any underperforming driver and find reasons/excuses for his lack of performance…
Fact is, Liuzzi has never confirmed in F1 the potential he seemed to have in the junior series. Shown glimpses of pace at Toro Rosso, but always seemed to throw away results when they were within his reach. When Vettel came up against him as a young rookie, they were sort of matched, but Sebastian shone more in those key moments and climbed up the order. Then Liuzzi had ANOTHER chance last year with Force India, and was wildly off Sutil’s pace, at least where it mattered the most, in qualifying, which makes or breaks a F1 weekend in modern times.
It’s perfectly logical they want to take a chance with another driver. Paul was highly promising in F3 (beating Vettel with equal levels of experience) and while he’s been away for long, Mercedes still believe in him and he’s been great for them in DTM. Whether that makes sense in light of whatever bizarre contract they have signed with Liuzzi I don’t know, but in terms of potential driver performance it does.
Claudio Alegria,
You are completely missing the point here, making the assumption that this is about performance. It is not about performance at all. Liuzzi did a good enough job to fulfil the terms of his contract. The engineering team at Force India would be happy to keep him because he understands the car in a way that is completely over the head of Adrian Sutil. The German is a very quick driver, but it is more to do with magic reflexes than brain power. So, it makes no real sense to dump the one bloke with experience who might be able to help you, particularly if you are trading him in for a guy who was quick in single-seaters five years ago and does not have much F1 experience. It makes no sense… except if there are other reasons for it. I don’t know for certain if it is money. Who knows? Perhaps Di Resta’s manager is the next door neighbour of the man running the team. I don’t really care. What I do know is that Force India is looking to break the contract and is trying to create justifications for that action. In my opinion this is not acceptable and should not be condoned.
In any case, I used to think that Nigel Mansell was rubbish as a driver back in the 1980s, because I did not look closely enough and went only on results. I am happy to admit that I was wrong and I learned from that mistake. Once he was in the right car he was terrific. I see Liuzzi as a driver in the same mould and, given his level of talent (which even Fernando Alonso mentioned without any prompting), I think he deserves more than he has had. As I have said many times before I really do not care if people do not agree with me. That is my opinion.
Joe,
There is less disparity than you might think between DTM cars and single seaters: as I’m sure you know, DTM cars are mid-engined, RWD (unlike most other touring cars), and have a carbon fibre monocoque cockpit like an F1 car. They also generate considerably more downforce than WTC or BTCC cars and have much more power.
Of course the power to weight ratios and maximum cornering Gs are well below an F1 car, but the driving style (left foot braking, trail braking deep into the corner, etc) is not that dissimilar from what is needed to succeed in Formula 1.
Di Resta has been testing for a while now, and I’d be very surprised, given his success against competition like Vettel in Formula 3, if he didn’t do a good job in his first season of F1.
JP
There’s no reason why Di Resta can’t jump in that car and be faster than Sutil after a few races (which, essentially, is what Mallya needs). Sutil’s only real benchmark has been an ’08- and ’09-spec Fisichella and he didn’t exactly annihilate him so there will always be question marks over his ultimate ability to mix it with the best.
I don’t see why Di Resta would take too long to catch up on experience from five years away from racing single seaters – he was very quick in practice last year and Mercedes have rated him the best driver in DTM for at least the last two years.
You’d have essentially been making the same arguments if Vettel or Hamilton had found themselves unlucky enough to be in his position and we know there’s no way they’d have taken long to rediscover their edge under similar circumstances, so why should Di Resta? He’s only 25 after all. (Incidentally, Lewis blew away Sutil in the EuroSeries in ’05 when both were in their sophomore season). Theirs is a super-talented generation and it’s sad that F1 has found itself ignoring one of its principal members for so long.
Force India seem to work on the basis of signing all the available drivers then using a dart board to decide who is actually going to drive.
Would it not be easier for al concerned if they announced DiResta and Liuzzi for 2011 and farmed Sutil out to HRT if they really want to keep him that badly, then put him back in the Force India for 2012?
i think the problem is his performance, if you look at Tonio’s problems with the car were F-duct related. and if you look closely that team did not run F-duct from the start of the season. i believe the team ran no F-duct till Canada GP. Team did not run F-duct i guess in Monza too. Also post season tire testing also gives a comparison on his speed compared to di Resta & Sutil. If you take a look at that you’d get a clear idea why team wanted to get rid of him.
Also when Liuzzi was hired the team had 5 year engine deal with Ferrari, hence two Italian drivers landed up @ Force India in my opinion.
I trust, Joe, that if di Resta gets the gig, you will let him get on with it without your opinion of Liuzzi influencing things. It might well be rough on Tonio but that’s life – he didn’t do much wrong but also he didn’t do anything so amazing as to make himself indispensable.
How many talented, deserving drivers haven’t even started a single F1 race, let alone 63 of them?
And theres the sound of that big can of worms with Liuzzi written on it being opened again! I got a bit of a savaging previously from Joe for questioning Tonio’s speed so will not be making that mistake again. I will however say that I understand why Force India would want to promote di Resta. I would imagine that there is some sort of discount on the engine bill if Paul is given a race seat, and as we have seen with Williams, teams have to make tough decisions in order to survive. Better to have quick drivers like di Resta and Sutill who have performance related backing rather than the Maldonado type pay driver who is only well funded by dint of his nationality.
When I heard Alonso’s comments on Liuzzi my first thought was that maybe Fernando wants him as a team mate. this would make sense for Ferrari as perhaps Tonio wouldn’t give Fernando a hard time and it would keep the tifosi happy to have an Italian in the car. Liuzzi’s undoubted experience and technical nous would only help his cause further. Maybe Tonio won’t have to rely on selling trousers after all.
“joesaward
Romford,
No, there are others with stronger feelings than I have.”
Yeah. His parents.
I like Liuzzi and think it would be shame for him to go, especially as he didn’t do a huge deal wrong last year. I know he didn’t get the results, but Sutil hardly set the world on fire and has had far more of a consistant crack at it than Liuzzi. Sutil has certainly shown promise, but his failure to truely out pace Fisi last year does raise some questions. Also, I always had Sutil down as a great driver in the wet (I’m thinking Monaco before Kimi lost it on the breaks), but then after his performance in Korea he went down in my estiamtion quite a lot (as F1 Rejects put it – “Hey Adrian, you need to break for corners”)
If, as joe suggests, Liuzzi is better from the engineers point of view, I’d have Liuzzi and Di Resta. I’d love to see Di Resta get a drive, and either way I don’t think it’d be long before he was doing better than either Sutil or Liuzzi
Besides, there are enough Germans in F1 already!!
I don’t think any of the three drivers are much to write home about. Di Resta did OK on the Friday but not enough to make the two drivers lose sleep.
I don’t get Joe’s defending of the contract either. Part of that contract will (or should) include get out clauses. So if either party is attempting to evoke one of those clauses they ARE honouring the contract!
India!
You obviously have no idea about F1 contracts.
I’m going to agree with the others here who don’t think Liuzzi’s cumulative performance with FI has been as rosy as you are painting it to be Joe.
To illustrate my point, I’m going to make an obvious reference to the BPR performance rating system, which incorporates a number of data sets in arriving at its ratings. In the 2010 Season Summary chart, Sutil’s season average BPR score was 80.824, ranking him 11th. That compares to Liuzzi’s 76.086 which ranks him 17th. The resulting comparison between the two teammates results in a TEAM COMP +/- of 2.369, which is significant over a 19 race season and historically high in relation to other teams and seasons. It’s important to note that unlike points tables, those figures measure pure performance without regard to reliability, and should therefore provide a true impression of how each driver performed when he did get to the finish un-delayed.
It’s important to note that we are making a comparison here to Sutil, who has proven to be a fairly inconsistent driver himself. To me, the most glaring indicator that Liuzzi hasn’t earned his spot at FI is the fact that he’s failed to really outperform his teammate in any single event in a way he’s been outperformed on numerous occasions; and I’m even referring back to his time at STR.
All I’m saying is that there’s a reason why for the second time in his career, Liuzzi may be getting the boot in favor of a driver who has yet to prove his F1 mettle…
I’d like to see Liuzzi and di Resta, actually. Sutil’s appeal has always eluded me completely (other than the Medion millions).
If the Buttons and Barrichellos of the world depend on analytical ability to make them faster than their raw pace would dictate, and the Alonsos and Hamiltons combine pace and the capacity to operate a race car intelligently, Sutil to me is on the opposite end of the spectrum — an instinctive quickness (sometimes running quickly into obstacles of various sorts), but not too much thinking going on.
Joe, obviously you have a great deal of experience and knowledge about the F1 scene and from my following of this blog, you are really sticking out your neck for Liuzzi.
I really fail to understand how for the life of me, how if Liuzzi is supposedly an amazing talent, why can’t he turn in a decent performance against Sutil, who is supposedly an erratic driver.
I really hope for Liuzzi to be given a shot at a top team, if only just to prove if you are wrong/right!
Do you think he can outdrive Webber in a red bull?
Romford,
My view is my view. If you don’t like it, learn to live with it.
As desperate as I am to see Paul di Resta in F1, Joe does have a good point that he has not raced a single seater in 5 years. It has been shown many times over the years that drivers who maintain career momentum succeed more than those who have had their progression interrupted. You only have to look at someone like Johnny Herbert who was being compared to Jim Clark before his accident to see that. He has spoken about the difference in attitude he had before and after the accident. Before he was invincible and knew he would win after it things were very different.
I still think diResta will achieve more than Liuzzi has but there is a bigger question mark against him now than had he graduated to F1 at the same time as Vettel.
@Romford –
I am with Joe on this one and would like to flip this around. Adrian was touted as the next big thing and has been around with the team since its Spyker Avataar. while he had benefit of doubt that Spyker was not exactly the car to shine in, under Force India management Sutil has never beaten his team-mates hands down. 2009 season when the team hits its peak Fisichella comfortably had measure of the German.
But thanks to good PR Sutil was still touted as “Next greatest thing”. Sutil is rapidly heading that Journeyman Club (with Fisichella, Trulli) unless of course his team hits that sweet spot and produces the gem of car (as it happened with Button and Webber). Given the history of FIF1 team, with Billionaire owner yet the team struggling to pay suppliers on time, technical staff leaving the team the latter doesn’t look feasible for FIF1.
If he was not clobbered by other drivers in some of the races where he was in good point scoring position Liuzzi and Sutil would have been closely matched on the points table as well.
I wonder why Liuzzi is not able to generate the sympathy that Webber used to generate when he used to drive for mid-field team and was always “victim of reliability issues”.
I guess like life F1 is about perceptions and smart ones are those who successfully “manage perceptions”, Sutil is smart and Liuzzi probably not (and so were many other drivers who got raw deal in F1).
Still don’t see why everyone thinks it’ll be Sutil and di Resta.
Liuzzi is worth more to them than Sutil’s backing if they have to pay out for Liuzzi.
If it is money, then this would tell me that Sutil is on the way out, if even just for this one season.
I think it’ll be a surprise and Di Resta and Liuzzi will be named.
I’m a big fan of your writing Joe and love the blog but I think that you’re overegging the Liuzzi pudding somewhat.
I’ve just been through the 2010 statistics on f1fanatic and found only 3 races where Liuzzi outqualified Adrian Sutil; Monaco, Canada and Brazil.
So in 16 of the 19 races, Sutil beat him in qualifying. Comparing the times of the two drivers when competing in the same qualifying session, Sutil was on average 0.69 seconds faster.
This either makes Sutil a Senna-esque qualifying genius or it raises very serious questions about Liuzzi as a F1 driver
Michael,
My views are my views. I have explained them enough times if you care to read back through old comments.
I have to admit with all due respect to Liuzzi fans that I have never seen what the big deal is all about. He has had ample opportunity over the years to prove himself and it just hasn’t happened. Not just at Force India but Torro Rosso also. How long do you beat a dead horse until you realize it isn’t going to breathe anymore?
But then again how long do you give Sutil? Sorry but I have no idea why either of these drivers are still in F1. In fact the longer it goes on, you would think with their ego’s, the more embarrasing a rubbish season after rubbish season would be.
I think that by Liuzzi so far not taking a buy out proves his hunger but if you can’t move to a better team because your not (seen as) better than the drivers in those better teams then why go backwards (HRT) and have another crappy year? Is there much point to that?
If you think you are that good of a driver and so many other people think you are a great driver then go to another series and turn in some performances that get you noticed again. What’s the point of going to a team where you have a 30-40% chance of just finishing the race let alone finishing in the points.
I agree with the earlier comment, send DiResta to HRT and give Liuzzi his one last year to prove himself. If he doesn’t hopefully he will realize once and for all that it isn’t going to happen and probably never will.
Speaking of beating a dead horse I will say once more – If all of the drivers scored points for qualifying and race position you would know exactly without being a math wizard where Liuzzi stood versus Sutil or anyone else at the end of a weekend and the end of a season. But we can’t make F1 that simple for fans to follow can we?
Liuzzi having a much higher level of technical input in the team than Sutil is not public knowledge. If you do have inside information confirming that, then I’m happy to retract my comments and almost begin to understand this whole saga defending Liuzzi here.
I actually sympathize with Tonio too, it’s just that from the comfort of the sofa and the computer at home, all that we (the common F1 fans) can see, as deep as we look at it, is that he’s had a disappointing season again. Whereas he’s being replaced by another obvious potential talent who should’ve been given a chance years ago. Hence why the overwhelming majority of F1 fans are ok with this move by Force India, judging by the comments here in the blog.