Force India team principal Vijay Mallya has hailed Paul Di Resta’s growing maturity following his impressive start to the new Formula One season.
After the opening four grands prix of the current campaign, Di Resta and the Silverstone-based marque have both made their best start to a year.
Di Resta has so far collected 20 points, falling agonisingly short of standing on the podium in F1 for the first time just over a fortnight ago in Bahrain where the 27-year-old equalled his career best result of fourth.
Courtesy of the Scot’s drives, Force India have chalked up 26 points, with team-mate Adrian Sutil unfortunate not to have added to his seventh-placed finish in the opening race in Australia.
After an ignominious end to last season when Di Resta scored just two points in his final six races for a variety of reasons, Mallya has so far been highly impressed with his return to form.
“The performances of Paul confirm just how much he has matured as a driver,” said Mallya.
“He’s delivering consistently every week, and we are reaping the rewards of all his hard work.
“He suffered a difficult end to the 2012 season, but he’s shown great mental strength and determination to regroup over the winter and recapture his best form.”
From his own perspective, Di Resta is content enough with how his year is so far evolving as he said: “We’ve got to feel very happy with how things are going and I want to congratulate everybody in the team.
“We took a very sensible approach to the winter and focused on understanding the key areas that drive performance, which seems to have paid off.
“It’s important to pick up good points early in the season against our competitors, and to be ahead of McLaren after four races is a credit to the team and a nice feeling.”
With this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix looming, as F1 tackles Europe for seven of the next eight races after the long-haul start to the year, Mallya is convinced his team can continue to push the best.
“After the pit-stop problems in Malaysia, points finishes in China and Bahrain have set us back on the right path, but nobody in the team is taking it for granted and we will not rest on our laurels,” added Mallya.
“Having come so tantalisingly close to the podium with Paul last time out, we head to Barcelona full of optimism.”