Kvyat Secures Ferrari Development Role

[Paul Jeffrey]

Ferrari sign Daniil Kvyat as Development Driver for 2018 season.

Sacked Toro Rosso driver and winner of 133 Grand Prix points, Daniil Kvyat has secured a Ferrari Development Driver role for 2018, removing yet another potential candidate for the spare Williams seat as the 23-year-old confirms his continuation in Formula One racing following the ignominious departure from the Red Bull programme.

It is thought that Kvyat will be tasked with spending the majority of his time in the Ferrari simulator supporting main drivers Sebastien Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen, however it is not out of the question for the young Russian to at least sample some limited seat time during pre season testing later next month, if only to help correlate the feeling between real and virtual representations of the 2018 challenger from the Prancing Horse.

Kvyat was looking at a bleak future in Formula One following the axe falling on his Red Bull stay, leaving very few realistic options open for continuing in the top flight of motorsport for what would have been a fifth consecutive season. However with a reprieve in the form of a role with Ferrari, Kvyat has remarkably kept himself in contention for a future return in the coming years should an opportunity arise elsewhere on the grid in 2018 and beyond.

With Kvyat now confirmed at Ferrari and according to Toto Wolff outgoing Sauber driver Wherlien expected to stay somewhere in the Mercedes fold, fellow Russian Sergey Sirotkin and former race winner Robert Kubica remain favourites for the second Williams, with an announcement expected some time late next week.

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Do you think the Ferrari / Kvyat announcement is good for both team and driver? Can the Russian reclaim a place on the grid in future seasons? Let us know in the comments section below!

 

[AndrewBo]

 

[Matthew Allington]

15 years ago Ferrari hired someone to be test driver, who apparently had talent but was rather down in the dumps after having a few incidents and being unceremoniously removed from his old team. His name was Felipe Massa, I understand he did quite well from that...

 

[samcar304]

I believe this maybe his 4th time lucky... He was signed for Red Bull for 2015 after all...

I kid of course, its a shame what a few bad weekends have done to him and his career. meanwhile other drivers do silly things every weekend almost and are still in a job. (Looking at Sauber).

 

[XCalinX]

He deserves it. He's a great driver and shouldn't have been kicked out from TR. He outscored Ricciardo in 2015. I was hoping he'd get the Williams seat but maybe this will be better in the long term because if Kimi retires at the end of the year and Ferrari doesn't consider Leclerc ready yet he could get a year as a full time Ferrari driver and have his final chance to prove himself.

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Didn't see this one coming that's for sure...

 

[Denis E.]

Daniil coming to Assetto Corsa ?

 

[dragob]

As James May would have said: "Cock!" ...

 

[paracletus]

Ferrari are developing an advanced-capability torpedo and have hired Dr.Kivyat as lead consultant.

No, well done. Has shown some good racing skills, as well as the broken fender or two. Thought we hadn't heard the last of the driver.

 

[Rodent]

Seb keeping his friends close and his torpedoes closer.

Good for Kvyat, it's an odd world where Ferrari might be the stable to let him gain back some confidence but there you go I guess.

 

[Boby Kim]

Ah well, may the force be with him

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

15 years ago Ferrari hired someone to be test driver, who apparently had talent but was rather down in the dumps after having a few incidents and being unceremoniously removed from his old team. His name was Felipe Massa, I understand he did quite well from that...

That's incorrect Felipe was signed by Ferrari after he won the Euro F3000 title(not the main league that follows F1) in 2001, Ferrari put him in Sauber for 2002, he was very crash prone so Peter Sauber decided not to continue with him for 2003 and Ferrari gave him the test driver role (this role that was actually a thing back then, Massa probably has more miles in the car than Schumacher and Barrichello).

On topic, nowadays i don't know what Ferrari is doing signing rejects... Kvyat is not the first, they signed Vergne before (never did anything else in F1 before moving on) and Guttierrez (got a second chance with Haas)... it's difficult to understand really, what is their role? Just reserve? Certainly behind young prospects like Leclerc in terms of future...

Anyways it's kinda sad that Massa is the only succesful story of the Ferrari academy, hopefully Charles changes that.

 

[muzikant]

mod-edit: English please

 

[Sky]

With lack of testing nowadays the role of development driver actually consists of:

• making the tea

• standing around the back of the garage looking serious

• keeping johnny herbert out of the catering area

• saying 'for sure' as many times as possible when someone pity-interviews him

• and if he's been a good boy he gets to check the wheel is calibrated in the simulator.

 

[Nick Milton]

might mature him a little to re enter, maybe was a bit early to him.

 

[snyperal]

Good luck to him!

 

[apex11]

Russian money got him there?
That aside, the lad did get a podium in a Red Bull when the Red Bull wasn't the best car to be in. He can clearly in the right car be up the sharp end.
In Bottas's seat he could of been 3rd or 4th in the WDC...maybe won a race...
He went from from Red Bull to TR, if you took Lewis out of the Merc and stuck him in the Sauber i doubt his mental state would of been much better than Danil's....but there you go..

 

[dud]

Skeptical about this one. Sure, Massa had some billiards like tendencies, too. But I'm getting really bad vibes here...

 

[Enagee]

Didn't expect this but he must have something if not Redbull would have got rid of him a long time ago. Yeah maybe a bit too early for him he's still young.

Congratulations and good luck.

 

[apex11]

Not sure about all this crashing stuff, F1 was built on a reputation of gladiatorial men driving racing cars and all around they were crashing and dying at a shocking rate.
Certain drivers seem to get a lot of stick for crashing which I think is slightly unfair.
A bloke at the front of the pack is far less likely to have silly crashes than a bloke mid or towards the back.
Also the visibility is terrible in F1 cars these days....
Crashing used to mean they were pushing limits and were men with big balls..

I suppose cars are so aero dependent they don't simply fall off the track anymore unless the car has a fault, so the crashes are mainly silly ones where they misjudge braking points etc or clumsy overtakes...