Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsWilliams

Di Resta reported in line for role at Williams F1

Former Force India driver Paul di Resta is in line for a surprise return to Formula One as a Williams reserve driver, according to reports from the BBC.

The Scottish driver has been out of F1 since the end of 2013 when his contract at Force India wasn't renewed. Up to then he'd made 58 starts with the team, the first at the 2011 Australian Grand Prix and the last in Brazil in 2013.

Prior to moving to F1 di Resta has successfully won the 2010 DTM championship with HWA Team. After parting company with Force India he returned to DTM but found success there hard to rekindle.

The BBC reports suggest that di Resta will continue to race in DTM with the official Mercedes works team in 2016 alongside his reported reserve driver role with Williams. Mercedes supplies engines and power units to the Williams F1 team.

There has been no official confirmation of the reports from either di Resta or the Williams team, but the BBC states that the deal will be announced in the next few days before the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Susie Wolff has just retired from a longtime test role with Williams, while British GP2 racer Alex Lynn is in his second season with the team as a development driver

However, when Valtteri Bottas injured his back in the build up to last year's season opener, Williams opted to go outside their existing back-up drivers and hire di Resta's former Force India team mate Adrian Sutil as a stand-by in case of any future problems with either Bottas or Felipe Massa.

Ultimately Sutil was never handed a race outing in 2015, and the German driver announced earlier this year that he was calling time on his Formula One career and looking for options outside Grand Prix racing, with DTM and the FIA World Endurance Championship said to be high on his list of possibilities.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.