TALKING POINT MAX PROMOTED KVYAT DEMOTE
“To be honest, I was always very happy at Red Bull,” Max
insists. “I never saw reason to change and with this opportunity
there is no reason to change. I’m happy to be here.”
Less happy is 22-year-old Kvyat, who entered F1 as a
teenager straight out of GP3 in 2014 and lasted just over one
season at Red Bull’s top team.
Marko told La Gazzetta dello Sport that the Russian
struggled with the pressure, “There were not just two incidents
that led us to this decision but also the rest of the races, where
Kvyat was inconsistent.”
“He’s suffering too much pressure and we believe
sending him to Toro Rosso is the right move for him to regain
the necessary peace of mind.
“He is a talented guy, still young and he will be able to
rebuild. He is lucky because, thanks to the fact that we have
two teams and we can rotate the drivers, we have not given him
a kick in the pants that would mean the end of his adventure
in F1,” Marko added.
Indeed, Kvyat still has plenty of backers. Jenson Button
publicly and immediately questioned the demotion, and
Mercedes’ Toto Wolff also thinks Kvyat deserves to be in F1.
“He is a very fast boy,” Wolff told Russia’s Tass news
agency. “He deserves his place in formula one as we saw in
Shanghai, aside from the fact that he is a really nice character.”
“If he continues to drive like he does, he is a candidate for
everybody because he is quick,” he added.
Ex-F1 driver Giedo van der Garde warns that Verstappen
is facing a tough challenge in his on-form new teammate
Daniel Ricciardo.
“For a driver it is not easy to change team mid-season,”
he said, “although I do think there are quite a few similarities
between the Red Bull and Toro Rosso cars.
“On the other hand, there are major differences in
electronics, for example the functions of the steering wheel.
And Max will suddenly have to work with a different engineer.
“Of course there are a few risks with this move but it
should not be too difficult for him,” van der Garde added.
“If you get a chance like this, you just have to grab it.
Especially if you have as much talent as Max Verstappen. I
think podiums this year are very possible,” he added.