Kvyat a contender for Williams drive

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In the round-up: Daniil Kvyat could return to F1 with Williams.

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The tributes have been pouring in for Lewis Hamilton’s fourth world championship success.

This year was satisfying. Hamilton was the best driver this year. He started by beating his team mate. He also out-drove his rivals.

Vettel drove well most of the time, but he made two very costly mistakes. He came out behind in Spa where he had a chance but was out-driven.

Versappen drove well this year, especially recently, but made mistakes earlier in the year. His car was so bad he never had a chance. Let’s hope Renault fixes the power train for next season.

The Mercedes was still the best car this year. It made it easier for Hamilton to drive so well. But he still drove almost flawlessly. A well deserved championship.
RP (@Slotopen)

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Keith Collantine
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73 comments on “Kvyat a contender for Williams drive”

  1. Regarding COTD which mistakes Verstappen has made? The only one that came to my mind is Hungaroring. Actually I believe he is running Hamilton closely for the driver of the year. He has beaten Ricciardo in qualifying and couldn’t show his promise until now because of RBR’s poor speed and foremost reliability woes.

    1. It may not be his fault, but you don’t reward the kid for mechanical failure. Otherwise, we could declare Alonso driver of the year every year despite showing us next to nothing on track.

      1. You know Max had less tracktime than Fernando ! So mechanical failures really F* up his year but not his driving.

    2. Yeah, I also wanted to ask about that. For the season, I think with regards to Verstappen it is more fitting to say that the car started out not being good enough and then tended to break down/blow up once he seemed to be in contention for at least a podium. Only the last couple of races the “luck” in the REd Bull team seems to have been upturned and now it’s Daniel suffering more of the reliability.

      Off course nothing of that doesn’t mean that Hamilton won the title deservedly this year, he has had very little “off” weekends and his qualifying speed was up with the best of all times.

    3. I think Max is getting way too much bad rap, he’s made a good number of mistakes throughout his baby career and his defiant attitude earned him a good number of doubters but he did alright this year, I think he kept being aggressive but much more measured, on the other hand, Seb was taken over by anxiety way too many times for an experienced driver this year.

      Looking forward for next year, let’s hope Renault improves on reliability front so we can have Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren winning races next years.

    4. With regards to Verstappen, they are not really mistakes, but sometimes his being too aggressive that he’s risking a lot. For example, in Spain, he went 3 wide trying to overtake both Bottas and Kimi. Those battles with Massa at Monza (cost him damage) and with Vettel at Silverstone (was rewarded) shows that he will give no quarter whatsoever. On the other hand, he was rather for his aggression on other time. Canada (although he was unluck with his engine) and Mexico show his startline aggression. Another one is Hungary which initially rewarded him 2 positions. but cost him a penalty which lost him a position(so it was zero gain as Daniel would have been ahead of him rather than Hamilton). That’s it really.

  2. I think that the Ferrari has the best drivability (suspension and downforce) but Mercedes is the overall better car (engine/power input etc)

    1. IMHO, independently of who’s got the best car, the difference between the two is very small.

      1. The difference is LH no?

        1. It’s unrealiablity. Not considering Singapore, Vettel lost a net 16 points in Malaysia (could have been 19 if Ferrari’s other car was working), and 18 points in Suzuka (could have been another 14 as well because Mercedes seemed to be slower at that race). I’m not dwelling on ifs and but. Just saying that unreliability played the biggest part I think. I did not include other problems like collision so do not do likewise. I also did not try to calculate what the points gap would have been as that’s not what I;m trying to point out

          1. @siegfreyco I’d say Baku and Singapore played a bigger part (though a lot of pole sitters start like that and ends up unharmed so I don’t count that as a mistake so I personally count that as unlucky rather than Baku bad)

            As for reliability, I’d say Rosberg won the championship with more help from reliability than HAM did this year, so there’s that

          2. @davidnotcoulthard He just lost 13 points from baku though I agree that Singapore was the most damaging as he potentially lost possibly 38 points (though it looks like Verstappen and Raikonnen would have been ahead of him.)

  3. Kvyat? LOL.

    Awful driver. Williams are making a fool of themselves in this driver selection process.

    Just keep Massa, none of the other options are any good.

    1. I imagine Kvyat abs stroll could be two excellent paid drivers. Williams might be thinking money.

    2. @viscountviktor they are desperate, aren’t they? to be honest, the only sensible option is Wehrlein. Fast, young, has recent experience, and deserves a shot. None of the others have that all together.

      It could be worse, tho, they could be considering Sutil…

    3. @viscountviktor I agree they should keep Massa. Massa himself has said he’d do another season, so why not?

      I don’t agree that the alternatives are no good, but I don’t think they’d be much better than the experienced Massa who has been with them for four years now.

      1. I feel that Massa had passed his prime for quite a while now and doesn’t fighth much anymore and I suspect that this car could go faster than what Massa and Stroll show.
        In a way I would prefer Kvyat to Massa. Not sure he has as good feedback to develop a car around him but he is hungry which Massa is not and he wants to prove STR wrong which is often a good engine for a driver’s motivation…

        I am still feeling that Williams don’t have many appealing option (if any).

        1. I think I agree with @jeanrien here, @strontium, @fer-no65, @viscountviktor, I also get the impression that neither Stroll nor Massa are getting the full potential out of the car.

          Surely Kvyat will be super motivated to prove himself – he showed he has it when he get his mindset right as recent as the Austin race – and he has experience from being in a top team with Red Bull (can hardly get more pressure cooker environment).
          I mean, Kubica will likely also be super motivated, and it would be a great comeback. But is that a risk Williams can afford to take? Di Resta, meh. FI at the time mentioned they did not like his attetude, his speed is OK-ish, but not someone to conquer the future with.

          1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
            30th October 2017, 8:58

            Massa has now quite easily missed a potential of over 50 points this season down to bad luck. He’d doing nothing like as bad as people think he is.

        2. But the thing is that Massa is like 1 second faster than Stroll every session, so there is a big difference between the potential Massa is getting from the car to what Stroll is getting from the car. Stroll has been just lucky and Felipe terribly unlucky as usual. But Massa is 15-2 on qualy against Stroll with an AVERAGE of 0.7s. So there is a big gap between them when it comes to speed and pace. Felipe would have probably be fighting the Force Indias if it wasn’t for his terrible luck this season.

    4. Massa just need some luck and better tire strategies.

      1. Massa needs to retire

    5. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      30th October 2017, 7:56

      Kubica not very good? That guy has so much natural talent he could beat all the other candidates one handed. If it can’t happen with Robert I agree that all the other options are terrible however.

      1. @rdotquestionmark I see what you did there ;-)

    6. JEV > Kvyat.

  4. I’d hardly call Hamilton an under-appreciated champion. Look at all the recognition he has got, both in the paddock and around the world – which the article even goes on to talk about! Under-appreciated…

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      30th October 2017, 17:37

      @strontium I agree, and I’m even seeing comments that this is his most-deserved WDC. That said, I think drivers like Hamilton and Vettel will be much more appreciated after they retire. But even right now, the proof is there: the two youngest 4-time world champions, more wins than Ayrton Senna, extremely skilled in wet weather.

  5. I really think Ricciardo will find another gear next year. (He probably needs to given Verstappen’s pace.) I’m sure he will.

  6. COTD sum its up perfectly. Hamilton really did make the most out of what Mercedes capable of. Congrats.

  7. Interesting COTS in that I don’t agree at all. Vettel for me still had the more impressive season than Hamilton.
    And I’m also struggling to imagine Verstappen’s early season mistakes, unless he means a bad quali in Austria that left him in a tight first corner? Or do car failures count as mistakes nowadays?

    1. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
      30th October 2017, 7:58

      I actually think Vettel massively underachieved in the second half of the season, not to mention his amateur wheel to wheel abilities. If Alonso was in that car I have no doubt it would be heading to Abu Dhabi. Hamilton and Verstappen are another level right now, with an honourable mention to Alonso.

      1. Agree, Vettel started the season very strong, but after the mid point he seems to have let the pressure get to him with a string of unforced errors.

      2. @rdotquestionmark Amateur? Look at his overtakes on China (against Ricciardo; on Canada(against Perez): on Mexico (late-lunge but clean). His only mistake was really in Singapore but defending at the startline has all been done by other(even Hamilton). His mistake in Malaysia was inconsequential as that was on the cooldown lap. I’m not being a Vettel fanboy (as my other posts will attest). Just giving out a different opinion.

        1. Amateur yes. Quick guy, but no racer

    2. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
      30th October 2017, 9:16

      The interesting fact is that both Verstappen and Ricciardo have both had equal retirements down to technical problems now. 4 each. Verstappen may also have been taken out 3 times, but it has to be said, it is extremely unlucky that Ricciardo has retired in the last 2 races when Red Bull looked to have been at by far their strongest this year over the past few races. So basically, Ricciardo is having is bad luck at a worse time than Verstappen in my view. So on the whole in my opinion, Verstappen has now only been a little more unlucky this season. And yet again, we have missed yet another 2 races with them against each other. I think there has been a maximum of 4 or 5 races where they have both started and finished without any technical troubles or getting involved in crashes. I do think Verstappen most definitely has more pace than Ricciardo, but some may not be happy to hear me say this, I’m still not totally convinced Verstappen is better on the whole. I think we need a much more reliable season with much more racing each other to prove this. Qualifying doesn’t show enough as this is not the most important thing. I think Ricciardo is the better overtaker and better as keeping out of trouble too. Verstappen has taken Ricciardo out in Hungary. I think this makes 5 retirements for Ricciardo now. Just 2 less than Verstappen. He well as taking an overly risky move on Massa that resulted in him only getting 10th. No penalty was given to Massa and as Verstappen got damage, I can only assume the reason why no penalty was because it was the driver in the wrong who got the damage. So Verstappen had cost the team a few points this season but also has gained simply loads recently even with a penalty for the start of the race last weekend.

      1. You seem to forget that several of the mechanical problems occurred when VER was on a much better place then RIC. In Baku he would have won by some margin.
        Other DNF’s occured when fighting om high positions with BOT as catalyst.
        The RBR/Renault reliability this year is very bad and both drivers have had there share of it. Lets hope 2018 is better and on the MERC level.
        The move on massa was obvious a aggressive defending from Massa. Nothing wrong there with VER. He was a victim and the stewards decided to do nothing. Like they seem to miss the behavior of Magnussen.

    3. Vettel has been terrible the second half of the season. He threw away a win because of his shocking attitude in Baku. An over aggressive start when it wasn’t needed in Singapore also cost him the chance to make some good points up on Hamilton. He was gifted a win in Monaco and Kimi was basically his personal slave this season whenever they needed him out of the way. Possibly his worse mistake this year was Mexico. I’ve now watched it several times and that has to be one of the worse moves I’ve seen this year. Hamilton was fully ahead at the time and he just drives straight into the back of him ! That was a GP3 move at best. Monza he was again dreadful in the wet. I mean he crashed while driving on an in lap too ! Honestly, it’s laughable how bad he’s been since the mid season break.

      1. @Tim Disagree on several fronts. His ‘track’ rage in Baku was not shocking, just him displaying an emotion after he was sure he had been brake tested. Not defending it, but it certainly wasn’t ‘shocking’. We’ve seen far worse from some drivers at full racing speeds. Singapore had SV do a normal start, and he couldn’t have known Max was being bottled in by Kimi on the other side. A pure racing incident. Kimi was not his ‘personal slave.’ Kimi simply underperformed initially in the season when he had everything that SV had in terms of opportunity to stamp his authority on things. And Mexico was not a mistake whatsoever. It was pure racing brought on by an amazing move by Max, and LH trying to take advantage when keeping out of that fight would have still seen him achieve the WDC. He went for the glory of trying to win the WDC with a race win, which wasn’t necessary. Not blaming him. But certainly SV did nothing wrong and did everything he could, having been thrown a curveball by Max who put him out of shape, to extend his minuscule WDC chance. You can’t look at SV sawing at his wheel and tell me he drove ‘straight into the back of him.’

  8. On Kvyat, I’d be all for it. Ideally they replace both drivers and one would be for Kvyat, but in a foursome of Wehrlein, Kvyat, Kubica and Di Resta, I’d choose Kubica for romance but Kvyat on everything else. Hope they give him the chance.

    1. I’d rather see new fresh drivers than drivers of which we already know won’t ever get a WDC

  9. COTD i would argue Ferrari had the all round better car this year. Maybe not exploited to its full potential. Missed opportunity for Ferrari also hampered with some unreliability

    1. @johns23 – Most of the way round. Reliability bit Ferrari.

      1. And of course Vettel did.. Baku, Singapore, Mexico he lost a lot of potential points there.

  10. Congratulations to Hamilton with his well deserved 4th WDC crown.

    I don’t think though his year was ‘almost flawlessly’ as mentioned in the COTD.
    After the summer he was by far the best driver.
    But before the summer he was very up and down, and clearly outdriven by Vettel.

    1. Outdriven by Vettel?!
      ROTFL!
      Ferrari was the best overall car for most of the season and still Vettel “only” won four races.
      Your comment is a clear sign of how underestimated hamilton is.

        1. Well, I think that Hamilton and Vettel were very close in the 1st half, depending on how you rate the Monaco, Russia down for Hamilton (down to car, or wasn’t able to get out of it what he could, unlike Bottas); while Vettel let himself go at least in Baku, but also wasn’t flawless on several Saturdays which meant he had to do it in the race (like in Monaco), but after the summer break, Hamilton always seemed to get the best out of the car, while Vettel didn’t (Monza, Spa maybe, certainly Singapore, and also Yesterday turn three).

          1. @bosyber He couldn’t have done anything better at Monza I can assure you. Mercs were just too strong

          2. Well maybe @siegfreyco, but for me when Vettel is behind Raikkonen in qualifying, without a problem, then I tend to think he didn’t do all he could …

          3. @bosyber I was thinking about the race as it’s where points are given

          4. @siegfreyco sure, but that Kimi is a) second driver, and b) well over his top, causing a, is clear, so normally Vettel in that Ferrari was 2nd or third fastest cat, Max in Monza took himself out, Danny Riccardo was in the back, so third, well behind the Mercedes was his maximum, after that qualifying.

            In the end it is subjective, which is why I said ‘for me’, you clearly tend to give him more credit, and maybe Hamilton less. It happens :)

          5. @bosyber How can you say that I give Hamilton less credit?

      1. @liko41 – Why do Hamilton fans get so spun up about this. He already has 4 titles and most of the big records, he’s clearly one of the best.

        That said, pull off the blinders. Looking at Poles, Fast Laps, Wins, Retirements (in that order):
        Merc- 13p, 8fl, 11w, 1r
        Fer- 4p, 7fl, 4w, 6r

        Yes, Hamilton adds something to the Merc camp, but so does Vettel. I’m not arguing that one is better or worse, or that Vettel is “just as good.” But, we should all be able to agree that in terms of skill they are pretty close. Point being, Hamilton alone did not create that results gap. The Ferrari is good this year, and has been very good in some races, but it is not the better car overall. And in reliability alone it has been much worse.

        Seemingly nearly every Hamilton fan last year threw a fit over reliability being the only reason Rosberg won. More level-headed people, imo, said it was one issue among many. So I won’t sit here and say that reliability is the only reason that Hamilton won, but it played a part. So did Merc building a better car again. It would be great next year to see both drivers get exceptional cars, with good reliability, and have some killer races all year.

        1. LOL! One issue among many? Having 3 engine issues versus zero?
          Let alone the mysterious starting troubles that affected Hamilton and were solved only this year?
          You are so easily fooled..
          And this season, Ferrari was indeed the overall better car, they only have a less effective driver pairing.
          Hamilton has been far better than Vettel and Bottas largely better than Raikkonen.
          Hamilton with Ferrari would have won the title, and nothing you h@ters say could take anything away from him.

          1. Being a obvious Hamilton fan seems to cloud your judgement to much.
            But let’s not start the reliability story all over again. Rosberg won over Hamilton fair and square.
            This year Hamilton won the WDC with exceptional performance the second half and succeeded to get the car under control. Something Bottas could not. ( so it seems Merc is only able to keep one car on race condition looking back ;)

      2. Hamilton is underestimated because of his cars dominance. And it doesnt help that he has become timid. He has claimed so many times that tracks were not suitable for overtakes (while VER then overtook many) that he harms his own image

  11. Rear Right Puncture
    30th October 2017, 8:52

    Ferrari ‘s unreliability , Vettel’s errors and Kimi being Kimi eventually contributed to Mercedes looking the more consistent car. Spa and Monza was merc all the way, but Ferrari looked good in Hungary and Monaco. Mercedes has a superior management style than Ferrari. That was the difference

  12. I think it is what they call unadulterated hogwash.

    It is sad when someone you want to respect makes such a serious allegation that threatens the reputations of honest hard working people. Mercedes were paid $40M less than Ferrari for the 2014 season, even though they finished ahead of them in the Construtors’ Championship, so why would they just give their technological advantage to their richest competitor?
    The Ferrari engine have used Turbulent Jet Ignition (TJI), developed by Mahle, since 2015. Their name appears on the Ferrari drivers’ overalls. It took Mahle, who are experts in high performance engines, 5 years to develop this technology.
    Media reports from last year say it is almost certain Mercedes engines have used a similar type of technology from 2014, but very few details had been released as to what that technology is.
    http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/opinion/f1/ferraris-formula-1-jet-ignition

    1. I wouldn’t read too much into it, it’s just Bernie being Bernie. He rarely says what he really thinks. Either he believes saying that will serve some purpose in eliciting a desired reaction from somebody, or he’s just sowing a bit of mischief for his own amusement.

  13. Vettel & Ferrari have been a major disappointment. Up to Monza I was worried my annual pilgrimage to an away race might be watching Vettel coast to the championship. Lewis stepped up for sure, obliterating his team mate in the process with a car no-one disagrees is a tricky diva to get humming but right at the point the Greats are made, Ferrari were the dismal architect of their own downfall. They’ve had the most consistently quick car but they have made basic errors, a spark plug really, crashing into your team mate really? Everyone knows Ferrari is the most scrutinized team in the paddock and that can make it difficult, at the moment they are making it look more difficult than anyone has.

    1. with a car no-one disagrees is a tricky diva

      No one has disagreed I’m way better than Jack Brabham……

      1. i am!
        Just on your on track performances here that is ;)

      2. Its a double negative. English not your first language? I assume not with your surname

  14. Season’s over folks, well it sorta has been for a while now thanks to Ferrari.

    Lewis has won, regardless of what anyone says, he is the champion, so lets move on. Hopefully next year it will go down to the wire, with multiple teams in the hunt (ala 2010). Well we can hope, can we?

    Kvyatt to Williams made me chuckle. I think Kyatt has been poncing around F1 for a while now, and he isnt somebody you’d associate with success, because he hasn’t had much of it. Kvyatt and Stroll will make the weakest pairing on the grid, they might as well hang on to Massa in that case…Kubica probably has more ability in his one good arm than all these guys.

    1. I’d be interested to see how it works out if Williams do decide to hire Kvyat. I suspect he might surprise a few people, given a different environment to what he’s had in F1 previously. We’ve seen on numerous occasions how the Red Bull pressure cooker can chew up and spit out capable drivers.

    2. Hopefully next year it will go down to the wire, with multiple teams in the hunt (ala 2010). Well we can hope, can we?

      The last few minutes were still nothing like 2008 though!

  15. Rosberg probably would have been champion again…Would have at least been a fight to the end and far easier for Ferrari to stay in the mix as Merc would have been struggling to prioritize. We have been robbed of a potentially great season!

    1. Yeh probably, after all it only took him 23 years to beat him once.

  16. hm. i agree 100% that williams should stick with massa.he is the lesser of 4 or 5 evils. not excluding silverspoon stroll.
    kubica may get them a nice sponsor, but not enough points for the constructors. and kviat? my diagnosis is; not enough balls to get results. and of stroll, the less said the better. i liked what di resta did in dtm. but i doubt if he can provide consistency for points.and wehrlein orbits in the club of silverspooned paydrivers, imo.

  17. Kvyat at Williams is just what he needs.

  18. Season sum up: Hamilton had no competition from the get go and capatilised on it as he should. So well done, but no surprise. Bottas is clearly no Rosberg. Vettel individually and Ferrari collectively were always destined to crack under pressure. Meanwhile Red Bull missed the season start. So it was absolutely clear HAM would take it and he drove well but not particularly inspiring.

    Inspiring were Ocon, Alonso and Verstappen. What a season for them. Alonso still got it. Ocon and Verstappen are the future contestant for the WDC. Ocon needs a top three (or four, taking McLaren Renault into account) team drive.

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