Alpine has announced former AlphaTauri racer Daniil Kvyat will be the team’s reserve driver for the 2021 F1 season.
Kvyat is a veteran of over 100 grands prix and scored three podium finishes, the most recent his third place for Toro Rosso at the Hockenheimring in 2019.“We have a strong addition to the team in the person of Daniil Kvyat,” said Alpine’s CEO Laurent Rossi.
“In this year of the pandemic it was important for us to have a strong back-up,” he added.
“He’s already scored three podiums. We’re very happy to have someone who is able to step up if the need arise and score the points, put the car where it should be at the end of the line.”
Kvyat made his F1 debut in 2014 with Toro Rosso and was promoted to Red Bull the following year. However he was demoted back to Toro Rosso four races into the 2016 season, and then lost his F1 drive before the end of 2017. He spent a year as Ferrari’s simulator driver before returning to F1 with Toro Rosso in 2019. He was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda in the team’s line-up for 2021, after it rebranded as AlphaTauri.
The 26-year-old said he is “very excited” to join Alpine, which previously competed as Renault.
“The team has achieved some great results in the past year and is very technologically advanced. Development has been strong, and I am aiming to contribute to this positive trend.”
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Omar R (@)
2nd March 2021, 16:28
Good to see Kvyat still around F1. He might have one more return for him.
TFLB (@tflb)
2nd March 2021, 17:05
Good for Kvyat, he seems like a good guy and had some really strong weekends towards the end of last year, often masked by bad luck. However, why not Guanyu Zhou or another of Alpine’s young drivers? Isn’t that kind of what they’re for?
pastaman (@)
2nd March 2021, 17:45
If it doesn’t make sense, it’s probably about money.
Ronny
3rd March 2021, 0:07
Kvyat has never been a pay driver. They need an experienced driver for car development. Kvyat has proven to be very good at this at Ferrari.
Simon
2nd March 2021, 17:47
The phrases “Daniil Kvyat will be the team’s reserve driver” and “Kvyat is a veteran of over 100 grands prix…” are key here.
If Alonso isn’t able to do testing / first race
If Alonso or Ocon were to test Covid positive
then surely better to have an experienced driver on hand?
TFLB (@tflb)
2nd March 2021, 18:14
Simon – perhaps, but I prefer to see young drivers get a chance in that case, as with the paucity of available seats it might be their only chance. I understand why Alpine have done it though.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd March 2021, 18:37
@tflb The situation might change if Williams were to become a B-team for Alpine, returning to Renault PU in the process. Time will tell.
bull mello (@bullmello)
2nd March 2021, 18:56
Simon – this makes sense now.
BasCB (@bascb)
2nd March 2021, 20:39
First of all, I think Kvyat is a great pick to have a real reserve driver on the roster @tflb, instead of having it as a bit of a “feel part of the team” role.
As Simon mentions, It’s quite possible that Alonso won’t actually be able to drive yet during testing, or even the first race, depending on his jaw healing. If everything was completely fine, why wasn’t Alonso part of the launch. And why would they make so much effort to tell the world that “everything is fine, nothing to see here”.
And yeah, 2020 showed us that a driver getting Covid is still a real risk
obster
2nd March 2021, 18:08
Smart move. I hear he is good at setup/development.
Delphi
2nd March 2021, 22:23
That seems to be the case, even I was impressed by his succinct post session commentary a few times last year.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd March 2021, 18:35
If Ocon underperforms against Alonso, I reckon, Gasly has a higher chance of getting to Alpine (should he leave the Red Bull stable) than Kvyat has of becoming a regular race driver again, though. Especially since he’s doing proper racing this year, and Kvyat won’t.
James Neutron (@phillyspur)
2nd March 2021, 19:03
Kyvat has more lives than a cat.
Balue (@balue)
3rd March 2021, 16:36
Good choice
Dave
4th March 2021, 17:39
Still an innocent man to this day.