Kvyat: Sainz should speak to me “if he’s brave enough”

F1 Fanatic Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: Daniil Kvyat hits out at team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr following their row over qualifying in Montreal.

Predictions Championship

Valtteri Bottas painting by Rob Ijbema

Remember to make your Predictions Championship entry for the this weekend’s grand prix before qualifying. Among the prizes you can win this year are a motorsport painting of your choice by Rob Ijbema like the one above.

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Comment of the day

Who else wants to see Romain Grosjean in a competitive car?

Grosjean’s interesting – he’s someone I’d love to see him finally step up to a front-running car, god knows he’s paid his dues and at his age he has to make a move up the grid soon if he’s ever going to get there.

We’ve seen how fantastic he can be in a competitive car; when he finally matured in the second half of the 2013 season from a “first-lap nutcase” to a rapid and consistent force, he was a joy to watch as he put in almost Alonso-esque performances, getting the absolute maximum out of the E21 race after race. I think his string of podiums in the second half of ’13 was some of the best driving we’ve seen this decade, he was the only one consistently pushing the Red Bulls.

He has trailed off a tiny bit since then in terms of outright speed and ‘transcending the car’, but then I think he might have a bit of Jenson Button about him; quite narrow operating window and needs the right circumstances to really be at his quickest, but put him in the right car and he can be supreme. I believe 2013 was to Grosjean what 2004 was to Button; an alignment of great driver with the right car, but not quite enough to break through. Hopefully Grosjean has a 2009 Button in him.
Lewis McMurray (@Celicadion23)

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Logan00Si and Irishf1!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is via the contact form or adding to the list here.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

41 comments on “Kvyat: Sainz should speak to me “if he’s brave enough””

  1. Is he brave enuss? Brave enough?

    The fuel thing is another example of why F1 is so difficult for people to follow. Something that clearly enhances performance and makes the engines more powerful is banned. The whole point in the fuels F1 use is to produce the best possible combustion performance, in turn making the cars more powerful, being ‘the pinnacle’ of fuel technology and research along the way. The only thing they should do is mandate that fuel suppliers must give teams the same fuel, as they do with engine suppliers.

    Regional graphics are a good idea. As somebody who has lived in Britain all my life, I use the metric system for everything, except for speed. Kph isn’t something I can visualise, it doesn’t really have much relevance to me. I’m interested to know if regional graphics include languages. Obviously there isn’t much in the way of words, but some things such as race control would be best being put in alternative languages. The problem is translations would need to be done manually, whereas units would be automatic. However, if they are trying to expand F1 into untouched markets, having different languages could help viewers feel more comfortable watching.

    1. I’d like to add, I completely agree with comment of the day @celicadion23. I’ve always rated Grosjean highly, especially after he was the only guy challenging the Red Bulls at the latter half of 2013. I think he’s had a rough ride recently, and I understand why people don’t like the way he talks about the problems and his frustration at Haas, but it doesn’t disguise the fact that he is an excellent and fast driver, and I can imagine how motivated he would be if he jumps in the front seat. Even if he is not on the Vettel Alonso Hamilton level people talk about, in a similar way to how many felt Button and Kimi weren’t during their peaks, I think he’s still more than capable of world championships if given the chance.

      I think he has a lot to offer and if I were Ferrari, Grosjean would be my choice for next year.

      1. I do recall an article from a few years ago that when bringing into consideration the variances in cars, based on their data across multiple tests Pirelli viewed Grosjean as the best driver of the field. Their view was if all drivers had identical cars Grosjean would set the fastest time. That of course is not necessarily saying he would win the race.

        For those who demand a source otherwise its false, I am by no means a Grosjean fan. That said, I’ll try and find it.

    2. Something that clearly enhances performance and makes the engines more powerful is banned.

      Not when the fuel is bypassing the flow restrictor that everyone else is limited by.

    3. petebaldwin (@)
      23rd June 2017, 12:26

      @strontium But at the same point, it’s another example of the winners in F1 being decided in the board room with who can make the best technical deals rather than on track or in the factory.

      Why allow teams to use whatever fuel and oil they want but limit (extremely heavily) what tyres they can use? Shouldn’t F1 be ‘the pinnacle’ of tyre technology?

  2. Wow, Palmer comes across like an absolute brat in that five live interview. He’s having a poor season, what else does he expect an interview to ask him about? I guess they could ask him how much it’s costing daddy for him to play big boy racing.

    1. Desperation (dɛspəˈreɪʃn)
      noun
      a state of despair, typically one which results in rash or extreme behaviour.

    2. I agree with Palmer though. The other day I saw a clip of an interview with someone from Pirelli and asked the guy about tyres, poor journalism if you ask me.

      Hopefully Palmer won’t have to endure F1 interviews for much long.

      1. Listen to this Five Live clip in particular, the journalist asks a completely reasonable question, her first question isn’t even critical although it’s obvious what the connotations are. But given his poor season what else can they as him about?

        He then goes on the attack with clear snark in his responses like it’s someone else’s fault how poorly he’s doing this season.

        1. That’s Jo basically

        2. Now that I read your comment again, just to clarify that my first one was sarcasm

    3. He doesn’t seem to have any clue about his poor performance other than he’s not good enough, which he won’t say. Saying that you’re just going to do the same thing and hope for the best isn’t the right attitude. He needs to do something different. Anyway, he’ll be yet another journeyman and, because he’s not an interesting personality, no one will care. He needs to come up with a reason he’s not replaceable. So far…. nothing.

      1. petebaldwin (@)
        23rd June 2017, 12:27

        No personality? Sounds like he’s got a job waiting for him with Sky then.

        1. That’s a frighteningly realistic scenario…

    4. Maybe this is just because I am not a native speaker of English and thus may have missed nuances. But I actually found Palmer’s answer both honest and an interesting glimpse into the mental preparations of an F1-driver and how he attempts to deal with problems from one race to another.

      1. He was honest yes, but seemed to want to place some blame on him being in a bad place mentally on being asked fair questions about his season so far. His tone and what he said about the type of questions he was asked was very confrontational.

    5. I said it once. I said it one more time: Haryanto are better than Palmer.
      Don’t believe me? Just compared both first 11 races in F1.

    6. Yup, his attitude had rubbed me wrong for a long time now. First it was trash talking the car to explain his lack of form, now it’s BBC personalities at fault…

      What’s worse is people defend him, confusing our disgust at a guy’s attitude for a disapproval of pay drivers… do an Ericsson, and just hush, put your head down and focus on driving.

      How great would it be to see the BBC host get snarky?

  3. I see WEC are going to limit the number of aero packages used per year eventually limiting it to 1 but also introducing active aerodynamics, something I’ve always thought should have been allowed in F1 so long as wings etc. were allowed. With a little judicious regulation F1 could have much smaller aerodynamic elements but still have downforce where and when it is needed, and possibly reduce the problem downforce-deficit that currently affects closely following cars. Might improve the racing and catch up with road-car practice that has been using deployable rear wings for decades.

    1. @hohum I completely agree, I’ve thought F1 should have active aero for a long time now. As you say, road cars have been doing it for ages, not just on the rear wings but around the front and sides too.

      If F1 wants to be ‘road relevant’ (or supercar relevant in reality), and at ‘the pinnacle of technology’ (which I believe it is a mantra containing little truth) then it should be doing this.

      Furthermore as you say, if done cleverly it could be used to assist the problem with following, as actively sensing a loss in downforce through a corner could be compensated for, without being controlled by artificial rules. It’s possible that the only corners this wouldn’t work for is very high downforce corners, which would make the difference ineffective. It would reduce the overpowerful slipstreaming caused by the wider wings too, meaning we see more overtakes in the corners and less on the straights.

      It would improve speeds on all parts of the track, as the aerodynamics would be tuned specifically for that part of the circuit.

      Of course, the stewards would have to be able to disable it in the rain, if there’s a yellow flag, safety car, etc.

      Even simply having the DRS work through an active automatic (or even semi-automatic / manual) system would count for something, if they got rid of the artificial rules about being within 1 second of the car behind. Nobody ever complains about DRS in qualifying because in a way it makes it better, although I preferred it in 2011 when it could be used anywhere on the circuit (except Eau Rouge and the tunnel).

      1. @strontium, quite right, I believe the driver should control not only when but also how much wing is used. As you point out the optimum wing for the leading car is different to the optimum wing for the following car and is also situation dependant as well as providing a degree of handicap compensation.

        1. Well they did have driver adjustable front wings before DRS became a thing. I recall Alonso saying he never used it. I still think it is an option to tech up the sport.

          I would also add the following. Camera’s instead of mirrors, make them fisheye and it would reduce collisions. They weigh 10’s of grams including the dash displays.

          1. Adjustable wings yes, but if the adjustment was only a very slight factor in the downforce already provided by the full size wing then it may well have been not worth the effort.
            You’re right about the cameras, less windage also.

  4. Great article from Nigel Roebuck on Autosport plus if you have access:

    http://www.autosport.com/premium/feature/7583/the-only-modern-f1-driver-at-villeneuve-level

    1. @jaymenon10 Can you extract this to a txt or pdf file and give a link? It needs subscription so must of us can’t read the article.

  5. What’s Kvyat talking about? That’s quite a severe response for something like slipstreaming in qualifying. Anybody know the actual details?

    1. I think it is just that. Sainz complained (or cried, pick you preference) in Canada about having Kvyat on his slipstream, and excused the difference in qualifying to that factor. Thing is, as it appears he only talked about this to the press. Kvyat is just doing the same

      I like it, let it be war!! Let them embrace the dark side, I want to see some blood, much better than the typical “for sure, we will have to discuss things internally to see what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again”

      1. Agreed. We want these fiery rivalries in F1. It will be interesting to see how these two get on during the rest of the season.

    2. It’s a bit ironic though, Kvyat accusing Sainz of giving hidden messages in the press… by giving hidden messages in the press…

      1. Sundar Srinivas Harish
        23rd June 2017, 13:41

        That’s something they learn in the Red Bull Young Driver Program.

  6. Regionalise (regionalize) the graphics is a great idea.
    I hate it every time I pass the green because distances are in yards rather metres ;)

    1. How do you solve a problem like the UK?

  7. Hopefully FiA resolves the Timberlske’s concert issue, so we can have many music fans at the race. Because, God knows there won’t be any MUSIC fans at Timberlake’s concert…

  8. Instead of bumping the F1 qualifying back they should perhaps bring the concert forward, Or just leave things as they were as it seemed to work out fine last year.

    If we have poor weather or some other delay then having such a late start time limits how long you have to try & get the session in before you begin to lose light. Let’s not forget that after Suzuka 2014 the FIA wanted to avoid later start times for that reason.

    I also wouldn’t have thought that having qualifying start at 10-11pm in the UK/Europe is really the most ideal thing.

    I hope that isn’t something Liberty start to try & do more often where we end up with different start times for sessions based on other events going on rather than whats best for the F1 track action & Viewers.

    1. Agreed. For my timezone, quali is now 23:00 til midnight. where it used to be a very comfortable 21:00-22:00.

      This is the first real stupid move I have seen from Liberty, and I concur with the teams being upset about it. But the least they could do for the teams, is move FP3 up by 1 to 2 hours as well, so that they don’t have the massive gap where they still need to remain at the track, as they already have to be there bright and early to begin with.

  9. Another interesting bit of news as Horner has to reiterate ‘water-tight’ contracts for Red Bull drivers, on Sky F1 – “The drivers are happy. They’re on long contracts. There is no doubt in my mind or anyone in the team’s mind that they’re not part of the team next year. Anything else is just speculation.
    “The only driver who had a clause was Mr Vettel… Seb was able to renegotiate after his second world championship… which gave him the trigger when Fernando made his move from Ferrari.
    “These drivers don’t have that trigger.”

    Contrary to Horner’s statement, Verstappen hasn’t appeared happy at all and those rumblings have led to inevitable speculation.

  10. Earlier this year, the F1 Commission approved a three-point plan for 2018 in a bid to stop teams from exploiting the area of oil burn.

    Rule changes planned for next year include a new regulation that teams must supply the measurement of the oil level of its main tank to the FIA at all times of the event, that active control valves between the power unit and engine air intake be banned and that teams be limited to a single specification of oil per engine at a grand prix.

    It seems distinctly odd that they’re postponing these changes until next year, since burning oil is clearly a violation of the spirit of the existing rules. These engines are supposed to be “cleaner” and “more efficient” than the previous generation of F1 power plants. Deliberately burning oil to increase performance makes a mockery of the whole exercise. There is ample precedent for the rule makers to “clarify” the rules mid-season in order to close loopholes.

    For the record I’m not a fan of the “clean and energy efficient F1”, but if that’s the direction the people running the sport have chosen to go they really need to eliminate oil burning.

    1. Fireblade;
      Yes, but the whole point of a racing engine is to be as fast as possible… so you can say outlawing the burning of oil to be counter productive… you could be much greener racing bicycles, but that’s not formula1.

      I don’t care if they inject mother Teresa, if it’s faster, it’s faster… I give kudos for figuring that out.

      Legalize it.

    2. If your suggesting the FIA is expelling a lot of hot air then surely this is greener than burning oil?

  11. We will find out soon enough who’s been burning the most oil tomorrow

Comments are closed.