Paul di Resta says a consistently warm weekend in Barcelona might give the clearest indication yet of Formula 1's pecking order.
Scot says sunny weekend could give best indication yet of F1's pecking order
Paul di Resta says a consistently warm weekend in Barcelona might give the clearest indication yet of Formula 1's pecking order after a topsy-turvy start to the season.
To date, no driver has won more than one race in 2012, with common consensus linking F1's current state of competition to Pirelli's latest range of tyres as well as the cars themselves.
More pertinently, it seems the ability - or otherwise - of teams to try and make the tyres work in varying weather conditions has caused cars to suddenly lose performance during a weekend.
Speaking at the Circuit de Catalunya, the Force India driver explained: "Temperatures are going to be fairly stable this weekend. It might be different, it might not be, and I think in other grands prix it's not proved to be that way.
"If you look at Bahrain, it was much cooler on race day in terms of what it was on Friday and Saturday. China was the same: Friday was freezing cold, the race became hot. So it's always been difficult. Malaysia was obviously wet, so you've not really had a standard, absolute great picture of a weekend yet.
"There's almost a bit of guessing going on in there and how much do you trust your weather forecast."
Di Resta heads into the European season on the back of arguably his best showing yet in F1 - a sixth-place finish in Bahrain three weeks ago.
Qualifying in the top 10, the Scot went on to lead a grand prix for the first time after electing to run a two-stop strategy - the only driver to do so.
Having managed to preserve his tyres so well, di Resta - perhaps predictably - disagreed with the stance taken by Michael Schumacher, who said after the Bahrain Grand Prix that the current Pirellis prevented drivers from pushing to the limit.
"I disagree with him. It takes a bit of work in the engineering office and your approach to the weekend. It makes a difference if you get them switched on, you can have a great result like we did in Bahrain. We achieved that but there's other races where we haven't," he said.
Of the Spanish Grand Prix, the 26-year-old added: "It was boring two years ago when it was a one-stop race. You kind of just choose your moment, stop and get to the end of the race. I think here you'll see quite a lot of pit stops and you'll probably see strategies playing off.
Di Resta also hopes that upgrades Force India introduce this weekend will give them an advantage over rivals in the midfield pack - where competition is at its most fraught.
The team are set to debut a new exhaust on their VJM05 as well as a new front wing having run them in testing at Mugello last week.
"We upgraded the car and we saw some different things. But I think a lot of teams up and down the paddock have gone the same way and you just hope that we've dragged more out of it - and maybe went for a more aggressive selection on it that will pay off," di Resta added.
