SHREYASCONF1

Red Bull Racing has acted swiftly and decisively after the chaos of the Russian Grand Prixstart and has dropped Daniil Kvyat to the Toro Rosso team, to be replaced by Max Verstappen.

The 18 year old moves up after just one season of F1 racing and one season of F3. Kvyat, at 22, is likely to feel that his career is over, but as we posted on Monday, there is still plenty to play for with seats available at the end of this season if he can gather himself together and show his quality in the remaining races.

The promotion of Verstappen comes on the back of a decision earlier this year that Verstappen would be moved up to the Red Bull team for 2017 and clearly there is a lot of anger internally about the way Kvyat destroyed not only his team mate’s race in Russia, but also former Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel, a title contender.

Having decided his future, it made sense to move Verstappen sooner rather than later in a move of brutal pragmatism.

The obvious risk of this move is that Verstappen is not ready for a seat at one of F1’s top teams. Many who worked with Kvyat at Toro Rosso said that he was not ready in 2015 for the move up after just one season at Toro Rosso, but the move was forced on Red Bull by Vettel’s decision to leave for Ferrari. He had shown flashes of speed and had some decent results but was still a long way off the finished article and had not mastered looking after the rear tyres in races, for example.

In moving a promising youngster up so soon, is Red Bull in danger of making the same mistake? Verstappen looks like one of the great talents, based on some of his performances so far and experienced team sources suggest that he has huge potential. But he lacks consistency at this stage as one would expect of a driver who has completed just 23 Grands Prix and is still 18 years old.

Russia was a good example of the kind of challenge inexperienced drivers faced. Setting a fast qualifying lap is one thing, but to do well in the race in Russia a driver needed to be able to get a set of soft tyres to last at least 34 laps, especially the rears, while maintaining good pace. That’s the kind of challenge of the Pirelli era on tracks like Sochi.

Only experience will help you to do that. We didn’t get to see what Verstappen might do as he retired from a promising position in the top ten. It would have been very instructive.

Verstappen has more quality than Kvyat, more potential and appears to have a better temperament, although some heated radio messages about team orders have shown an emotional side to him.

He doesn’t make many mistakes, considering how hard he is pushing and there is a lot more to come from him. Pairing him with Ricciardo for the next season and a half will be a fantastic preparation for him and at the end of that we will know what kind of Grand Prix driver we have. The Renault engine upgrades will come on stream soon and moving Verstappen now gives him a chance to get up to speed with the team and profit from those upgrades to hopefully challenge for podiums in the second half of the season.

The move is tough on Kvyat, but exciting news for F1, it energises a championship that has become a little lopsided after the dominance of Rosberg and the problems of Hamilton and Vettel.

Kvyat’s highlights

Australia – China 2014

Kvyat’s F1 career got off to a superb start as he finished ninth at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix to score points on his Toro Rosso debut. In the process he broke Sebastian Vettel’s then record to become the youngest F1 points-scorer, which was broken again a year later by Verstappen at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Russian finished in the top ten in three of his first four races for Toro Rosso, with his 11th Bahrain the only non-score of those events.

Monaco 2015

After being called up to the senior Red Bull squad after a single year at Toro Rosso, Kvyat initially struggled to produce results at the start of 2015 and arrived at Monaco with a best showing of ninth, which he had scored twice, to show for his efforts.

Kvyat put his car fifth on the grid, fractionally behind Ricciardo, and then jumped his teammate at the first corner. He was easily holding onto fourth until Red Bull request Ricciardo was allowed through to attack Lewis Hamilton as he had fresher tyres, which Kvyat obliged. Ricciardo handed the place back on the final lap and Kvyat secured what was then his best ever F1 result.

Hungary 2015

After Monaco, Kvyat would finish in the points ten times from the final 13 races of the 2015 season and beat Ricciardo to seventh in the drivers’ championship, but his drive at Hungary was easily the highlight.

Kvyat certainly owes much of his second place finish to the misfortune of many of the drivers who started ahead of him in the chaotic race, but he did well to overcome a ten-second time penalty for overtaking outside the limits of the track.

To date, this result remains his best ever finish in F1.

Belgium 2015

Kvyat immediately followed up his first F1 podium finish with what he felt was the best drive of his Red Bull career as he climbed from a disappointing 12th on the grid to fourth in the race at Spa.

Again, the retirements of some drivers ahead of him helped Kvayt’s cause, but his charge on the soft tyres at the end of the race helped him to overtake four drivers in the closing stages to finish just off the podium.

Mexico 2015

Kvyat produced one the best laps of his career to qualifying fourth behind the might Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari.

He jumped the man he replaced at Red Bull off the line and was looking secure in third before the safety car gave Williams’ Valtteri Bottas the chance to jump him at the restart and he had to settle for fourth.

China 2016

The debate over who was at fault for the Ferrari drivers’ colliding at the first corner of the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix will continue to run, but Kvyat saw a gap, went for it, and came out of the corner in second place.

From then on he drove well and was never likely to hold Vettel off given the Ferrari’s power unit advantage on a track where overtaking is relatively easy, and was voted Driver of the Day for his exploits.

His third place was Red Bull’s first and so far only podium of the season and came just one race before his errors in Sochi cost him his drive with the senior squad.

What do you make of Red Bull’s decision to drop Kvyat and call up Verstappen? 

Nico Rosberg cruised to a seventh consecutive Formula 1 race victory and extended his world championship points lead over Lewis Hamilton, who rose from tenth on the grid to second place in the Russian Grand Prix.

Rosberg led the race from start to finish as Hamilton benefited from a chaotic first lap before racing up to second from his lowly starting spot, which was thanks to a MGU-H failure in qualifying, but a water pressure issue halted his charge.

Kimi Raikkonen completed the podium for Ferrari to claim the 700th podium for the Scuderia.

When the lights went out, Rosberg made a swift getaway as Raikkonen passed Valtteri Bottas for second under braking for Turn 2 before all hell broke loose behind them.

Sebastian Vettel, who had qualified second by started seventh due to a pre-qualifying gearbox change, passed Daniil Kvyat off the line and was challenging the other Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo under braking for Turn 2 when Kvyat locked up and hit Vettel from behind.

Vettel bounced off Ricciardo’s car and he continued out of the corner as Hamilton and several others were forced to go wide to avoid the incident.

While Vettel travelled through the long Turn 3, the Ferrari driver, who may have had a puncture from the first crash but he later confirmed he did not know if that was the case, was again hit from behind by Kvyat and the four times world champion spun into the outside wall and out of the race.

Even further back, a four car pile up that the stewards blamed on Haas F1’s Esteban Gutierrez, eliminated Nico Hulkenberg and Rio Haryanto at the exit of Turn 2. It was the second year in a row that Hulkenberg had retired from the Russian race on the opening lap.

The safety car was required for the marshals to clear away Vettel’s car and the debris that littered the track, before the race resumed at the start of lap four.

Rosberg scampered clear at the restart as Bottas avenged the opening lap move on Raikkonen to re-take second place from his compatriot at Turn 2 while Hamilton was busy passing Felipe Massa for fourth just behind.

Bottas, Raikkonen and Hamilton then fought fiercely over second, with the Briton passing the Ferrari at Turn 5 on lap seven, until Bottas pitted for his only stop of the race on lap 16.

A 2.7s stop from Williams kept Bottas just in front of Hamilton when the world champion emerged from his stop one lap later as Raikkonen stayed out for a further three laps.

Hamilton stalked Bottas for two laps before passing him at Turn 2 and Raikkonen was also able to jump the Williams when he eventually pitted on lap 20.

By this point Rosberg comfortably clear at the head of the race and when he made his only stop to switch to the soft tyres on lap 21, the German driver came out with a 13-second lead over his Mercedes teammate.

Over the next 16 laps Hamilton closed to within 7.5s of Rosberg before his engineer warned him about a “water pressure issue”.

From then on Rosberg eased home to win his fourth race of 2016 by 25 seconds over Hamilton, as the problem meant he had to back off before it eventually “stabilised”, with Raikkonen a further 6.9s back in third by the flag.

Rosberg’s victory means he joins Alberto Ascari, Michael Schumacher and Vettel as the only drivers to win seven F1 races in a row and he now leads Hamilton by 43 points in the drivers’ standings.

Speaking after the race, Rosberg said: “It’s been an awesome weekend. The car has been fantastic in qualifying and the race today felt very special out there. I feel very happy, thanks to everybody. I was enjoying it out there – flat out to the end.

“Great job from Lewis to come up to second so quickly from down in tenth. I was always aware of what he was doing and trying to keep that gap as big as possible.”

Bottas came home fourth, 24 seconds in front of Massa, who had made a late stop for a set of supersoft tyres in what was an otherwise quiet race for the Brazilian.

Fernando Alonso had leapt up the order thanks to the lap one incidents and held on to score his first points of 2016 with sixth for McLaren.

Renault’s Kevin Magnussen did likewise as the Dane recorded his first top ten finish since the 2014 Brazilian Grand Prix with seventh.

Romain Grosjean came home eighth for Haas F1, just in front of Sergio Perez, who recovered from a lap one puncture to finish ninth.

Jenson Button rounded out the top ten in the other McLaren to score his first point of 2016 and give the British team its first double points finish since Hungary 2015.

Ricciardo, who had pitted for repairs and a set of medium tyres after the lap one collision with Vettel, eventually finished 11th but only after Carlos Sainz was demoted from that position as he had picked up a ten-second time penalty for forcing Jolyon Palmer off the track on the exit of Turn 2 earlier in the race.

Palmer eventually finished 13th, just in front of Marcus Ericsson, who had started last for Sauber.

Kvyat was given a ten-second stop-and-go penalty for his crashes with Vettel and he ultimately came home 15th in front of his home fans.

Felipe Nasr was 16th in the second Sauber, with Gutierrez and Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein 17th and 18th.

The only other driver to retire from the race was Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen, who had been running solidly in sixth when his engine failed on lap 34.

Russian Grand Prix Results:

Pos
1 Nico Rosberg, Mercedes 1h32m41.997s
2 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes +25.022s
3 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari +31.998s
4 Valtteri Bottas, Williams +50.217s
5 Felipe Massa, Williams +1m14.427s
6 Fernando Alonso, McLaren +1 Lap
7 Kevin Magnussen, Renault +1 Lap
8 Romain Grosjean, Haas +1 Lap
9 Sergio Perez, Force India +1 Lap
10 Jenson Button, McLaren +1 Lap
11 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull +1 Lap
12 Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso +1 Lap
13 Jolyon Palmer, Renault +1 Lap
14 Marcus Ericsson, Sauber +1 Lap
15 Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull +1 Lap
16 Felipe Nasr, Sauber +1 Lap
17 Esteban Gutierrez, Haas +1 Lap
18 Pascal Wehrlein, Manor +2 Laps
– Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso Retirement
– Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari Collision
– Rio Haryanto, Manor Collision
– Nico Hulkenberg, Force India Collision

The variability in the racing brought about by the new rules allowing drivers to choose from three tyre compounds in a race instead of two, has been one of the brighter elemnts of this 2016 season so far.

And it looks set to continue as it was announced that Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean have made the most aggressive tyre choices for the upcoming Chinese Grand Prix.

For this third race in succession, Pirelli will bring its medium, soft and supersoft tyres, and each driver will have 13 sets of tyres available to use across the weekend in Shanghai.

Unlike many F1 venues, where protecting the rear tyres is key to success, Shanghai is all about getting the front tyres at the optimum temperature, especially for qualifying. A significant percentage of the lap time in Shanghai is spent turning, which damages the front tyres as they slide. Track and air temperatures are often cool at this event.

Each team and driver is also free to pick from those three compounds during the race, compared to two last year, in a new-for-2016 rule that is already proving popular.

Both Grosjean and Massa have opted to take seven sets of supersofts; five softs and just a single set of medium compound tyres for the third race of the 2016 F1 season. These decisions were made several weeks ago and are not in any way connected to events of the opening races of 2016.

Grosjean, who has scored points in his first two races for Haas F1, used an attacking race strategy that featured three stints on the supersoft tyres and a final stint on the soft tyres to finish fifth in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

By contrast, Massa’s Williams team did not have enough new softer tyres available for theBahrain race and lost a number of positions by running the medium tyre.

Mercedes vs Ferrari

At the front of the grid, Mercedes and Ferrari have again gone for a slightly different approach.

Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen will both have six sets of supersofts, four softs and three mediums to run in China. Both Mercedes drivers will only have five sets of supersofts, but Lewis Hamilton will have an extra set of mediums, while Nico Rosberg has gone for one more set of softs.

In last year’s race in China, Mercedes used its pace advantage on the medium tyre to run 1-2 to the finish, but the new tyre rule opens up a chance for Ferrari to try something different this time around.

Pirelli “very close” to signing new F1 supply contract

Pirelli is expected to sign its new contract to supply F1 with tyres, which was first announced by Bernie Ecclestone in October 2015, later this week.

Until now, the Italian company has not officially signed the deal with the FIA, pending satisfactionary measures by the sport to be able to test the new 2017 tyres on a respresentative car. But its motorsport boss, Paul Hembery, told Autosport that he expected everything to be sorted out later this week.

He said: “This week I believe everything will need to be resolved. We’re out of time now, but we’re very close. We’ve had a lot of collaboration in trying to do this.

“It’s a difficult world to work in, and within those constraints of the Formula 1 system, I believe we are drawing to a close to get something that will work for everybody.

“Everybody has worked extremely hard, and as ever we’ve worked very well with Charlie [Whiting] and his team.”

Whiting, who is F1’s race director, described the situation as “not unusual” and explained that Pirelli had asked for clarification on what would be expected of its tyres in the much-debated 2017 F1 regulations, as well as a guarantee on testing, before signing the new contract.

He said: “It’s not unusual for a contract to be delayed like this, and we’re still some way before 2017.

“Pirelli wanted the targets they were asked to achieve to be put into the contract. They wanted more specific items in the contract regarding testing. They want a guarantee of testing because if we are going to set them targets then they want the tools with which to achieve those targets.

“Everything else is sorted. They just want this guarantee of testing put into the regulations to have a little more comfort. They also want the possibility to test a previous spec of car, so it’s all achievable in the short term.”