Formula 1: Paul Di Resta aiming to keep growing up fast PAUL di Resta feels his success this season will mostly be based on how much he continues to mature as a driver and a man. Di Resta was rookie of the year in 2011, thanks to a strong performance in the second half of the campaign. He scored 25 of his 27 points in the final nine races. And, ahead of this Sunday's season opening grand prix in Australia on Sunday, much is now expected of the 25-year-old from Bathgate, given the faith Force India have shown in him. Di Resta was retained at the end of last season and it was Adrian Sutil who departed, despite a career-best haul of points. Di Resta is now in competition with Nico Hulkenberg, who also only has one year in F1, when he drove for Williams in 2010. Believing he has significantly matured in the 12 months since his debut a year ago, Di Resta said: "Success would be if I can grow as a person, be more consistent. As long as you're moving up, that's the focus and mentality we are going with, like Force India that has grown every year, and now we're trying to expand another step. Personally, it's about being more confident and consistent. You grow into a position. That is obviously what relaxes you when you are a rookie because you are a bit uncertain with the whole system and how it works. The Scot is not alone in thinking this season will be particularly severe after two years of domination by Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull. Force India finished sixth in the constructors" championship, their highest-ever poisition, and Di Resta thinks the midfield will even more squeezed this time. He said: "The engineers and mechanics, everybody will need to raise their game because I do believe it will be more bunched up. But I also think you will see that, if someone is having a good weekend, they will reap the benefits from it. If there are people at the top having a bad weekend then they might be in more trouble than it might seem, and they have further to fall. In terms of where we are, if we can come away from this race with some points, it would be a box ticked. This time last year we were pleasantly shocked with the points we came away with. Di Resta, who finished 10th in Melbourne 12 months ago after both Saubers were disqualified on a technical in fringement, can see and feel the difference a year has made. "My emotions this year are completely different," he said. I'm certainly more focused on the performance side, whereas last year was a bit of a learning curve. I'm also more relaxed, a lot fitter, a lot stronger mentally and more stable in life. Hopefully that side of things can transfer on to the track, but it doesn't get any easier. As a team I feel we've massively moved on, and you can see the difference from that from the experiences we had from the mid-season on last year. Although still relatively inexperienced, Di Resta feels part of the F1 furniture now. He said: "It's not that I didn't feel part of it last year but you felt that, when you walked into the paddock, all eyes were on you. Now it's regular faces you see - it's not as daunting. This is also the first place I started my grand prix career, so that adds to it.