HUNGARORING -- Paul di Resta is expecting a physically gruelling return to Formula One at the Hungarian Grand Prix, one he is going in to with minimal preparation.
The Williams reserve driver was elevated into Felipe Massa's race seat after FP3 on Saturday, following the Brazilian's decision to withdraw from the event. Massa had complained of dizziness during Friday practice and visited hospital that evening, before cutting FP3 short on Saturday morning as his condition had not improved.
That gave Di Resta less than two hours to prepare for qualifying, where he managed to finish 19th ahead of Sauber's Marcus Ericsson, just 0.8s off a place in Q2. The Scotsman has driven just 10 laps in a 2014 car this year, while his last simulator appearance had taken place before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in March.
When asked if his objective was simply to get to the end with a respectable performance, he replied: "Yeah, sensible pace. Again, it's one of those ones where you could find yourself burning tyres up very quickly within two laps and getting out of position because you don't know how much to put into them. It's something I was always quite on the good side of before.
"My style seems to have carried over into this car so far, what the guys are saying on the data in terms of how I use the rear tyre ... I don't know where the car's going to develop, how much front wing I want to carry for the first stint, what tyre I want to start the race on. [I'm like] 'I'll leave it up to you and I will just get in the car and do what I've got to do' and the best job I can do is physically turning the steering wheel. You do everything else to make it what you think is the best."
Saturday was Di Resta's first experience of the wider, faster, more aggressive cars Formula One introduced this season. He has no doubts that will be the most challenging aspect of his return race.
"Physically. I mean I am trained and you train as hard as you want, but your tense and you need to learn to relax, and let the muscle relax. It's like any winter you have off, the first day you come back you think 'how did I ever drive these things last year and find it so easy?'.
"It's even when I took the winter off and drove a DTM car the first day, you hurt because you're hanging on, you're using every muscle. You've got to let yourself relax. I probably had my hardest ever grand prix around here in 2012. It was hot, fighting for it. So I am not expecting it's going to be easy. I won't be as fresh [as I was after qualifying]."
Di Resta's qualifying performance earned praise around the paddock, with Toto Wolff -- head of the Mercedes motorsport programme the Scotsman drives for in DTM -- saying he showed his talent in the handful of laps he completed.
"Unbelievable job," Wolff said of Di Resta on Saturday evening. "To put him in this car in qualifying, never having driven it, having done a handful of laps in a 14 car to give some comparison for Lance [Stroll], driving a touring car regularly, and he is within .7 of his teammate and doesn't look ridiculous at all, is a major achievement. So I am really happy for Paul because that was against all odds."