Things have gotten even more difficult for Daniil Kvyat. After being sat out for two races in favor of Pierre Gasly, the Russian made his return in Austin for the US Grand Prix and scored points with a very good drive even handling a battery issue in the process.
His teammate for the weekend, Brendon Hartley, did a nice job considering he hasn’t been in a Formula 1 car in six years. He didn’t score points but he apparently did enough to score Kvyat’s seat for this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
The team released a brief statement:
Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Driver Line-Up for the upcoming 2017 Mexican Grand Prix will be formed by the following pairing: Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley.
This means that Daniil’s effort in Austin and his proclamation about completely changing his style and attitude didn’t sway anyone at Toro Rosso and so the “torpedo” will now be sitting out at Mexico.
Did Brendon do enough to warrant getting Daniil’s seat? Not sure but the question might be, did Daniil do enough to keep a seat in F1? Having said that, Brendon has been on the losing side of a Red Bull young driver program as well and perhaps he is getting a new look from Red Bull for 2018?
What an abusive relationship!
Only possible at the red bullies hands.
It definitely looks as if Franz Tost is implementing some evil programme to see what it takes to psychologically destroy Kyvat.
What else can they think of to throw at him?
The odd man out here may be Gasly. He was suppose to race in Austin but got sidetracked back to his regular F2 race in Japan to win the championship for Honda and he never got to race because it was canceled.
I was wrong. Kyvat is out, Gasly in for Mexico City. I think F1 is done for Daniil.
Mixed about this to be honest. Like seeing Hartley in F1, but if a points finish wasn’t good enough for Kvyat to run in Mexico, his F1 career really is toast. Only question is how long he keeps trying to cling onto it.
I suppose the point is that the best he can do is take the car to tenth, despite a good few years of F1. Hartley was only three places worse, despite starting at the back, having done zero sim work and having not driven so much as a metre in this era of F1 car If Hartley doesn’t improve at Mexico, Brazil or Abu Dhabi, then sure, he’s not a bet for the future, but they need to be able to assess him against the known quantity of Danny K, so they might as well run him for the remaining… Read more »
Can’t help but note some subsequent job descriptions of those who left F1 after being released from STR: FIA WEC champion; CART/Champ Car champion; Formula E champion; Global Rallycross champion; DJ.
Bourdais was Champcar champion before STR, not after.
Also best not add Robert Doornbos’s subsequent job description.
Ah yes, I overlooked the Bourdais timeline. Quite meanly, I was primarily focusing on an Alguersuari punchline. You can be assured that if Doornbos had driven for STR, I would have definitely included him! DJ is funny, but fleshlight maker is even better. Hopefully, Todd doesn’t get mad that I typed fleshlight…..twice.
Now, who among us didn’t see this coming?
Me!
Go Kiwi!
Its fantastic that Hartley is getting a second drive in the STR.
While it is very hard on Kyvat, STR had painted themselves into a corner by halting the pace of their Junior driver programme. Leaving them with no one after Gasley.
So pulling in WEC champion and Le Mans winner Hartley, now that Porsche are pulling the pin on their WEC involvement, is great.
It revives Hartley’s F1 chances, and could fill in the gap until the next Gasley/ Verstappen is ready to roll off the STR Junior Driver conveyor belt.
Off topic but might interest you and others. recently I was talking to a very long standing F1 friend of mine, and discourse fell on old time, I mentioned that one driver I used to admire a lot was Danny Hulme, and that I have a autograph from him somewhere. this friend of mine told me that Hulme spend his childhood barefoot and that he used to race barefoot as well, until a mishap with a seriously overheated pedal. my first reaction was of disbelieve and that my friend was exaggerating, that is until a week later I received from… Read more »