For any driver in whatever form of motor sport, when the big team comes calling it is both an exciting and potentially terrifying experience. Being in a top team should make it easier for the driver to perform well yet similarly there is a level of scrutiny from the fans and pundits which means the pressure is ratcheted up a notch or two.
For Danny Kvyat the timing of the call to join the big bulls for the 2015 season may not have appeared to be perfect. Having won four consecutive driver and constructor titles, Red Bull Racing was in a desperate slump. Following the introduction of the new hybrid engines in 2014 the Milton Keynes based team collapsed to second in the constructors championship, winning just three races that season. And to cap it all, Helmut Marko’s creation and quadruple world champion driver Sebastian Vettel had bailed from the sinking ship to join Ferrari.
Kvyat was set to partner the much loved, ever smiling Aussie Daniel Ricciardo, who had subjugated Sir Seb and deposed him from his lofty pedestal in the Red Bull shrine in Milton Keynes.
So no worries there for the young Russian then?
To make matters worse, Danny had a difficult start to the season, his Renault powered RB12 failed to make the start line in Australia and at the next race in Malaysia both Toro Rosso rookie drivers had beaten him at the chequered flag.
Again in Bahrain Sainz finished ahead of the young Russian driver and at the European season opener in Spain Kvyat had a do or di duel with the Spanish driver during the closing laps, only to be beaten by Sainz again and face an interrogation from the stewards. Inside the Energy Station, the Russian was also blamed for the race incident involving Sainz and his demeanor in the post race interviews was far from the relaxed rookie portrayed during his time at Toro Rosso the previous year.
Helmut Marko was publically critical of Danny following the race stating, “Our established guys need to look out,” adding, “Kvyat lost two seconds each time he was lapping [another car]. And Sainz exploited that.”
“Paradoxically, the more inexperienced ones did the better job.”
Further, TJ13 sources revealed at the time that things were not progressing well for Kvyat as Max Verstappen was soundly beating him hands down in the Red Bull simulator. We reported there was a strong rumour back at base that Verstappen was being lined up to replace the Russian at the mid-point of the season.
The opportunity of a lifetime was becoming a nightmare for Danny Kvyat who admits to Autosport the strength of the Toro Rosso rookies and the new James Key car played heavily on his mind. “But I had to put these kind of thoughts away, and in the end, as a group, we scored more points than them”.
Yet next time out in Monaco, Danny Kvyat’s strength of purpose was revealed to all. Despite qualifying behind team mate Ricciardo, the young Russian executed his race to perfection and delivered Red Bull Racing’s best result of the season to date, finishing fourth behind the two Mercedes and the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.
From thereon everything changed for Daniil Kvyat and he finished the season three points ahead of his popular Aussie team mate. Daniil reflected on his quick progression from the Toro Rosso team to Red Bull, which was forced by the departure of Vettel, though believes the move proved not to be ‘too early’ in the end.
“This kind of thing makes you stronger, you can’t pick your perfect moments [to change teams]. You just have to adapt yourself and that’s what I had to do. In the end I’m happy with how my move from STR to Red Bull went.”
The Kvyat tale of 2015 proves how small the margins are between success and exit for the modern day F1 driver.
2016 may again be a season where the Mercedes pair alone battle it out for the F1 drivers’ title, yet the duel at Red Bull Racing will be a fascinating one to follow, as the Russian sets out to prove again he is more than a match for the honey badger.
It’s pretty hard to gauge Kvyat vs Ricciardo because of the amount of problems both drivers had with that lemon PU Renault dished up last year. I’ll put my money on Ricciardo this season though.
Well if that’s the case you could apply the same theory to Seb vs Ric in 2014, still didn’t stop people saying he was beaten fair and square by Ric.
No not really, In that battle Seb was both outqualified and outraced.
wtf are talking about? I don’t think you watched the same season i did. Ric owned seb hard that year and the renault PU was the best of the rest that season. In 2015 renault went backwards with both power and reliability.
garyf1fan – Vettel is the first to admit that he didn’t perform well in 2014, but, he had the brunt of reliability issues, and, as has been acknowledged by several F1 pundits, he was not given the best strategy in at least two races. For example, he could have won Canada instead of Ric. So let’s keep a degree of perspective on the subject, please.
Vettel himself recently said he lacked motivation in 2014, which was a rather astonishing comment coming from him.
Yeah Vettel can come out and say what he likes after the fact, it means nothing.
Clearly you didn’t understood my original comment. If you said we can’t gauge their respective performance due to the amount of problems they both had with the PU, then it’s only fair that you can use the same theory for 2014.
But th facts still remains the same Kvyat did a better job than Ric hence why he finished ahead of him last season.
Oh please fortis96, RBR where far more competitive and reliable in 2014 than in 2015. Clearly you have not understood my comments. Kiv beat Ric by what 3 points in 2015, don’t forget Ric “taking one for the team” late in the season testing out the upgraded lemon PU from Renault.
I found your title misleading.
I agree, this site is shadow of its former self these days
Not entirely misleading but I might have gone for something like “A game of two halves for Kvyat” allowing for the fact that to some extent he turned his season around. Just saying like.
It will be a great fight to watch especially if Verspatten has a great season
Another post another clickbait.
Indeed. High standards of non journalism … at no point is there any evidence, connection or tie between the basic click-bait headline, and shoddy article… but, that’s what you come to expect from this site
I think Verstappen snr. didn’t wanted jr. do be promoted too quickly after how his own F1 career got effected badly by something similar, but as he already was stating at the Belgium GP, “Two years Toro Rosso and then we go up.”
“The Max effect” made it’s mark on last years F3 season where there were a handful who thought they could mimic the previous year. F1 was to a degree also effected by it last season (second half) and in the upcoming season it will only intensify with the likes of Kvyat, Bottas, Ricciardo, Sainz and maybe some others desperately trying to proof something.
We could be in for an interesting season in the midfield this upcoming year.
If you take into account retirements and issues out of drivers control, Ricciardo monstered Kvyat last season. But it’s all to easy to put the blinkers on and simply look at the points at the end of the season.
Not sure how you figure that. They both had two retirements/DNS due to mechanical problems, so it seems pretty even to judge on points.
Again, the article by Mark Hughes (http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/f1/opinion/f1-2015-beyond-our-top-10/) talks about Kyvat and how his second half may not be as good as the outside world perceived. It’s unfortunate that drivers are given very little time compared to the past. In the past they had a lot more testing as well which may have helped some drivers realize their potential. If I remember correctly, Williams had an entire testing team for Jacques Villeneuve that puts considerable kms on track before the season started. Not every driver is going to be of instant Max calibre.
In my opinion I think Kyvat is a better driver than Max
You are kidding right?
No I’m not kidding! I think he’s much better than Max. I think Sainz is also better than he is.
Are you talking about potential or current level? Because it’s normal for rookies to be perform worse than an experienced driver. I’d say that the more experienced Sainz was better at the beginning of the season, primarily due to his qualifying, but Max improved that a lot and at the end of the season I would rate him higher. Kvyat has a lot more experience than both and may be better now (don’t know, really), but I think that his talent is less than Max.
Yet another example of someone who wants to believe what he wants to believe. Reality for many is only what they want it to be.
Bizarre though this may seem, I find myself agreeing with you on this occasion. Really, I must get out more 🙂
Why is this clickbait when most red bull related news on tj13 is very reliable .
Just saying.
Regarding Kvyat he is lucky to have a job. Welcome to the pirahna club. Always wanted Robin Frijns over Kvyat.
most red bull related news on tj13 is very reliable
On a wet, gloomy, miserable day, I needed a good laugh – and the above provided it!
So now it is clear that the judge13 F1 site moderator will not allow criticism of his site to be posted on his site, that is certainly a cheap short-cut, instead of rebutting the criticism the judge chose to shield his followers of said criticism.
That is a carbon copy of what the other mostly British trash F1 sites do, and I was right in seeing you driving this site on that path.
You may choose to not let this the third post be posted, but you would have read it.
The names I see here with comments do not match, in any way, normal login names for comments; compare the structure of the names to other F1 sites, pretty evident the names are not real. I am seeing new and odd names that do not compute as real posts. My suspicion is that many (most) of the comments here are written by the website with made up names. Care to discuss this Judge? I also note that most of these names are new in the last several months and that I don’t see very many old comment names, although there are a few. I call this site bullshit and don’t expect this comment to be posted.
Sunny stivala is my real name, the post above you which thejudge let be posted is my third, the other two were not permitted. So kudos to the judge to let my third post be. In my opinion thejudge13 F1 site is one of the best, if it remains so depends on the site management, I voiced my concern on one of the two other posts to the judge about the site getting on the path of the other mostly British trash F1 sites, and I named them up to him.
“Re a sudden run of fresh names” I am a regular user of another popular F1 site, has been for the last 12 years, about a year or so ago there was a rush of new names most of whom started multi name posting, mostly agreeing and talking to and with themselves, these lot were the oneeyedfanboys of a particular driver, the migrated to said site from 247 after they were kicked out from there, because they very nearly took that site down with them, and if it wasn’t for the old posters on the site in question, that too would have ended in the same water.
Sunny, I tried to post a comment but the admin didn’t like it. Glad you’re real. This site isn’t anymore.
I still have hope that the path/direction to joint the other mostly British F1 trash sites will be changed by thejudge, the judge is too good an F1 site to self relegate to that said level of reporting. and when I say the judge is a good F1 site, I know perfectly well what am talking about, by direct experience from dozens upon dozens of other F1 sites, and not only British and English speaking and British based ones.
Misleading title