Paul Di Resta heads into this weekend’s Korean Grand Prix with his disappointment still “fresh” after his Singapore slump.
The Scottish driver stretched his barren run without a point to five races after a late crash into a barrier under the lights of the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Although believing the closing six grands prix in eight weekends will offer up a “very rosy” conclusion to the season, Di Resta is still sore with regard to his mistake in Singapore.
“The disappointment still feels quite fresh,” said Di Resta. “When you have a race like that you just want to get back in the car as soon as possible.
“After the race I went back to Europe for some training and to get myself ready for the final push of the season.
“This month is the busiest of the year, so it was good to have some quality time at home before spending the next couple of months travelling.”
Di Resta can only now hope the Korea International Circuit affords him the opportunity to finally get back in the points.
“It’s an unusual track, but definitely a place I enjoy driving,” added the 26-year-old. The three sectors are all very different with long straights linked by hairpins, some high-speed corners and a slower technical part of the lap.
“The tyre choices are the same as in Singapore so it will be interesting to see how they perform. We’ve always gone well on the supersofts, but struggled more on the medium compound, so hopefully we can switch those on this weekend.”
Force India’s remarkable decline, aided in part by Pirelli’s change of tyres following a series of blowouts at Silverstone, has seen them fall 14 points adrift of McLaren in the battle for fifth place in the constructors’ championship.
Co-owner Vijay Mallya is convinced his team can still overhaul the might of McLaren and claim their highest finish.
“The objective has not changed McLaren have a points lead over us, but they are not totally out of reach,” said Mallya.
“As I’ve said before, turning on the tyres is paramount and we are working hard to achieve this. There are a lot of points on offer and we need to try and regain the performance level we showed in the first part of the season.”