Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, Spa-Francorchamps, 2019

Kvyat not impressed by Albon’s first race for Red Bull

2019 Belgian Grand Prix

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Daniil Kvyat questioned how strong Alexander Albon’s first race for Red Bull had been, pointing out he kept his ex-team mate behind for 36 laps.

Both drivers finished 12 places higher than they started in Belgium. Albon took the chequered flag fifth, two places ahead of Kvyat. But asked at Monza whether Albon’s “good start” at Red Bull reflected well on him, Kvyat questioned how strong Albon’s drive had been.

“I don’t know why you call it such a good start,” he said. “He spent 36 laps behind me in a Red Bull Racing car and he started in front of me as well. So I don’t know. Maybe in the future he will do better.”

Kvyat said he wouldn’t have paid much attention to Albon’s performance after his change of teams if they hadn’t spent so much of the race together. “If he’d stayed at Toro Rosso it would have been an amazing race for him but he was in a Red Bull,” he said.

Albon swapped places with Pierre Gasly, who has now joined Kvyat at Toro Rosso. Gasly and Kvyat both lost Red Bull drives mid-season: Kvyat was replaced by Max Verstappen in 2016.

Kvyat says his and Gasly’s experiences show how hard it is to go up against a driver who’s well established within their team. “It is not easy always, of course,” he said.

“Especially when the driver has high confidence, when the car suits him, it is definitely not easy to just perform consistently. But for sure the cars between team mates are usually very similar which means the chances are likely to be very similar what you can achieve from that car.”

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62 comments on “Kvyat not impressed by Albon’s first race for Red Bull”

  1. Fair point.

    1. Exactly my thoughts; especially since they were on the same tyre strategy.

      But it must be said that all who praised him (and Albon’s own assessment) was based on his driving during the second part of the race on the soft tyres.

      1. Kvyat is of course not admitting that last Sunday was only Albon’s third day in that car. Try telling Albon and RBR that his fifth wasn’t a good start. The switch to reds alone made a big difference. Let’s give Albon a little more time, and a normal race weekend where he is able to do a normal qualifying because he won’t be starting at the back due to an inherited penalty, and see how he does. Better still let’s give him the smaller half of one season to gel with the team and the car.

        1. Kvyat simply responded to a question he was asked and gave an honest assessment. He didn’t say Albon was slow or fast, but simply that it wasn’t an exceptional performance. They both started from the back and made up the same number of places. It doesn’t matter if it was his first or third day in the car. They have access to the Redbull simulator so familiarity with the car is somewhat easier. Secondly, he couldn’t be compared out rightly to his team mate so we still don’t know how that will turn out.
          It was a steady performance not an outstanding one.
          One race is even too soon to judge his performance because he can even go ahead to be a thorn in Verstappen’s flesh.

          1. It was a critique though. The honest assessment did not have to imply he was crap because he was stuck behind his old team mate.
            Truth be told, not only was it his first race in the car, therefore getting familiar with the car and the team, but he probably wanted to just get a finish above all else. First race with Hemlut breathing your back? you’ll be filling your pants, and desperately just wanting to get a good finish, and better than Gasly finish too.

    2. Let me start by saying that I like Albon and think he has a great F1 future ahead of him, definitely the find of the season. But I think Dany has a fair point. In normal times a race from the back of the grid to 7th in a Toro Rosso would be picked up by the media yet it gets barely a mention due to the overblown media hype around Alex’s performance in a much faster car and one that was held behind the Toro Rosso for most of the race. In fact both drivers had an excellent race and result but only one gets any praise, and that is all that Dany was alluding to in my opinion. Not sour grapes and he was answering the questions put to him not going out of his way to make a
      statement.

  2. Can’t wait to see Daniil out of f1. Was hired on a whim got promoted on a whim, surprised he got demoted on a whim… Had chances, was slow, got back to STR. Managed to get beaten by sainz jr, the only teammate carlitos beat…

    1. Managed to outscore Ricciardo. Was competitive with Sainz, corrected for reliability. Was somewhat unlucky, in the pack in the middle, which is almost always ruthless.

    2. Töma Gavrichenkov
      5th September 2019, 17:57

      A bit of a context: the line “Daniil Kvyat questioned how strong Alexander Albon’s first race for Red Bull had been” doesn’t quite explain what really happened. The actual question by Chris Medland was closer to “are you afraid that Albon’s “good start” at Red Bull in Spa would have an impact on your career at Red Bull”.

      I hope Medland won’t stop at that. Here are a few questions of the same kind that he should offer to drivers:

      – “Nico, are you afraid that you will never ever be considered an option for a top team and your career is effectively over?”
      – “Kimi, are you afraid that after years of disappointment you only seem to show a good pace during this season because you’re lucky to have a rookie teammate?”
      – “Daniel, are you afraid that Esteban, who matched Max pretty close in junior formulae, will outscore you as easily and effortlessly as Max did?”
      – “Lewis, are you afraid that the only source of your wins — the superior Mercedes car — would be void in 2021?”

      I mean, if the interviewee is able to tell Chris anything but what Kevin said to Nico two years ago, that’s already a sign of a good mental state.

      1. Are you suggesting Chris Medland is tougher on Kyvat than he is on other (and generally more respected) drivers because of obscure reasons?

        1. Töma Gavrichenkov
          5th September 2019, 19:40

          IDK what questions he asks to other drivers. I have hardly heard his name once before.

          The point is, literally everyone knows that at Red Bull, you, as a driver, never happen to be even close to being aware of what in particular would have an impact on your career at all. Well, they won’t probably fire Verstappen for 1,5 years from now, but this is the only thing anyone except Dr. Marko and, maybe, Chris Horner could tell for sure. It has been obvious on numerous occasions that it’s not even like Franz Tost, STR’s principal, knows anything about the decisions being made in the RB HQ the day before they are made.

          Hence, there’s no reason to ask questions of that sort if you don’t aim just to be annoying. Maybe that was a bad day for Chris M. too, it’s hard to tell though.

    3. Wow, you are seriously twisting the narrative to make Kvyat sound bad. He got promoted early because Vettel left RBR unexpectedly, he certainly wasn’t slow, and after two incidents, RBR had the excuse to scapegoat him and get Max in the main team.

  3. I think Albon openly admitted both in the car and out of it that he hadn’t been impressed by his own race, which was probably flattered by Norris retiring on the last lap and his last-gasp move on Perez.

    It was certainly a good debut, but I wouldn’t go crazy about it, he made some very good moves but was on far better tyres than his competitors at that point. That said, he couldn’t have finished any higher than he did, so job well done for his first race in a new car. Nobody expects too much from Red Bull in Italy, so they’ll likely see it as another “test” race before Singapore where they should be competing for podiums and maybe the win.

  4. Was thinking the same during the race. Result looks better because of Norris’ retirement as well.
    I really like Albon though.

  5. He’s right, you know.

    1. Ya if you ignore that it was AA’s third day in the car, starting from the back. Should those things be ignored just because he was in an RBR car? From Kvyat, it would seem sure, let’s ignore those facts. For most, on any given day starting last and finishing fifth would be a pretty darn good day. Had Kvyat done that, even without it being his third day in the car and starting from the back, he’d have patted himself on the back, and likely felt like a winner.

      1. Kvyat probably would, because, he’d be in a position to benefit most from playing up his own performance. Albon not taking it as seriously, as most, says all that needs to be said.

        Kvyat here is talking about everyone, who should be seeing it for what clearly is, a Red Bull car, firmly above the midfield cars, driving as it should in the second stint. That result is to be expected. Norris’ DNF further flatters it.

        Albon was able to come back strong in the second stint, and get 5th. That alone shows the true pace of the car. That would be impossible in a midfield car. The Red Bull is an easy drive against formula 1.5. And Kvyat in a toro Rosso kept him behind, for the majority of the race. Why? Because he was on it all race, and Albon couldn’t unlock the pace of the car until he got on softs.

        Albon had a good debut, but it’s a Red Bull for God sake, that’s where it should be.

      2. Why so bitter?
        Neither I nor Kvyat are ignoring that. I mean, Kvyat explicitly compares Albon’s grid position to his. He knows the facts. And he quite rightfully comes to the conclusion that Albon’s race was only very slightly better than his, despite having a slightly better grid position.
        Also, Albon is not “most”. He’s one of just 6 top team drivers now, and considering the chasm that usually gapes between the top 6 and the rest, finishing inside the top 6 (or 5 on that particular day) is considered the bare minimum, regardless of the grid position. Particularly on one of the most overtaking-friendly circuits.
        Also, speaking of “ignoring”: Albon didn’t manage to finish 5th all by himself. He was aided by Verstappen’s early retirement (I guess it’s rather uncontroversial to say that Verstappen was likely to finish ahead, if not for the accident) and by Norris’ late retirement (almost 20 seconds ahead when disaster struck). And what about Räikkönen? He was ahead of Pérez when Verstappen crashed into him. We know that Albon got by Pérez on the final lap. Would he have managed to overtake Räikkönen as well? No one knows.
        So, while Albon did finish 5th, this is a result and not necessarily a faithful representation of his performance. Without unusual crashes or reliability issues, he would’ve finished 7th or 8th, barely outperforming a clearly slower Toro Rosso who started the race from two places further back.
        Also, let’s not ignore the gaps: Albon finished the race more than 80 seconds behind Leclerc and Hamilton. In other words, considering that there were only 40 laps of green flag racing, he was on average 2 seconds per lap slower than the fastest Ferrari and Mercedes drivers. Compare that to Verstappen’s qualifying gap (bit of a tricky comparison, but we know that the gap between Mercedes and particularly Ferrari on the one hand, and Red Bull on the other, tends to shrink on race day): 1.1 seconds to Leclerc, 0.4 seconds to Hamilton => Even if he hadn’t been closer to Hamilton in the race than during qualifying, it’s unlikely he would’ve finished more than 20 seconds behind the leaders. Which leaves Albon about 60 seconds adrift from where Red Bull should’ve been that day. Yes, he started from the back. But, as I said, it’s Spa. Wide open straights with two very powerful DRS zones. And it’s not like he was dead last at any stage of the race. He was in 13th place after the first lap carnage, so that’s already 7 cars he didn’t have to overtake on the track. And another one was going to give up the ghost before the end of the race. Clearly, this wasn’t a day when getting through the pack was exceedingly difficult.

        Long story short: It was a day with a happy ending for Albon, for no one could’ve expected him to finish higher than 5th, considering his grid position, Red Bull’s relative performance on that track, and the fact that he was under-prepared.
        But there’s much more to a race than just the naked result, a nuance that seems to have escaped the broad public, as many assessments of his performance were rather ecstatic. Which is something neither Kvyat nor Albon himself really agree with.
        So, again: Why so bitter?

        1. Not bitter at all. Just pointing out the facts. Why the need to write a novel when the simple truth is Albon was in only his third day in the car, starting from the back? The woulda, coulda, shoulda stuff in some cases benefitted Kvyat too. There are always circumstances surrounding whatever a driver did. Sometimes a driver inherits a win from unreliability of others and they still put that in the record books as a win. Albon was there in the end to achieve fifth. Kvyat could have been more gracious but instead comes off as the bitter one.

          1. I shall remember this comment as Robbie’s general theory of relativity.

          2. But, to say something less meta: Why write a novel? To explain my point. And that point is precisely: That truth is anything but simple. I’m trying to differentiate, dissect why you can’t just slam a “was only Albon’s third day in the car, whaddaya expect?” on the whole race to shut Kvyat and everyone else up. Yes, Kvyat is also angry that Albon got the drive even though Kvyat (not unreasonably) feels he did a better job so far. But does that automatically invalidate his opinion, which he backs up with a few very solid facts as well? Not in my book.

          3. No that’s fair enough, but as I say he blatantly ignored that this was Albon’s third day in the car. If it is ok for you or Kvyat to explain why you (or he) think as you do, and I’m all for supporting one’s opinion with some reasons for that opinion, then it is also fair game to point out that amongst everything that went on at the track that day that added up to AA’s fifth, whether lucked into or however one wants to describe it, the bottom line is that Kvyat made it sound like because AA was in a Red Bull he didn’t do anything special. I happen to think that it being only his third day in the car adds quite a bit to the story which makes it suspect that Kvyat would ignore that key point.

            Note that he doesn’t even get into specifics to support his argument like you do about what happened with this driver and that, which is how AA gets to fifth, but rather bottom lines it that usually drivers in the same car have the same chance since the cars are that similar, which completely ignores that Max is engrained and AA was on his third day with the car. How that is possibly a fair comparison is beyond me. Surely Kvyat gets that and is intentionally shading AA here.

            Ya fair enough, the RBR car, in Max’s hands, is potent, sometimes depending on the track. AA is not Max with Max’s experience with the car. He’s had one weekend. That’s a tad key right? Ignoring that is suspect and to me overshadows his ‘solid argument’ that it is an RBR car, therefore…therefore I guess on your first weekend with the car you just snap your fingers and make it happen. Like Kvyat does, I guess.

    2. All drivers at some point benefit from good fortune… Norris going out and Albon having the tires to make moves is a combination of good fortune and the strategy the team employed to get him in the right spot — Kvyat could have a point but he sounds more bitter than anything… Especially considering how much good fortune he received a few weeks ago when he finished on the podium by no fault of his own…

  6. Well…. lets see …a 1st year rookie starts his 13th GP in a new team, new car, ….starts directly behind the car that stalled ( that must have slowed progress )…. his main mission must be not to crash (he didnt)…he admits he couldnt get the mediums to work well that he started with…. the best he could have dreamed about as a finish was 6th behind the ferraris, Mercs and his superstar team mate …… his superstar team mate bins it and YET Albon is the one who underperformed?? I think we need to sit back and wait to see if Albon is”all that”, but thus far he did brilliantly and Danill has a big glass of sour grapes that he just needs to get over.

    1. Agreed. Well said.

    2. Nobody says he underperformed, but most are saying he a wonderful job. That’s the issue. It’s a Red Bull, with so much pace he was passing cars in unusual places on the outside of the corner.

      1. Kvyat stated facts. I don’t see any sour grapes. Anyone who had performed the way he did, talking about an ex teammate would have said the same or worse.

        1. And again, he could have been more gracious as he ignored the fact that this was Albon’s third day in the car. Just because it’s a Red Bull? That implies that AA should have been able to do what phenomenal Max, engrained on the team, with all the pre-season testing and 2019 races so far under him, and who has won with the car, has been able to do. At a track that was never going to favour RBR. And didn’t, including in qualifying. Yeah I think AA deserves a little more slack than Kvyat gave him. But that’s fine. Nothing is going to take away from AA’s fifth, but Kvyat sounds bitter or jealous.

          1. I think you’re over-interpreting it again. Yes, it was only Albon’s first weekend in a Red Bull. But on the other hand, there is this gulf I mentioned between where Red Bull belonged and where Albon finished. We can’t simply ignore that Albon was driving a Red Bull and only very slightly outperformed a Toro Rosso. Kvyat’s remark basically boils down to him not seeing anything extraordinary with Albon’s performance. And he’s right. We’re weighing Albon’s lack of preparation against an undeniable lack of pace. How much of a disadvantage this lack of preparation has been is virtually unknowable. But it stands to reason that it can’t explain the gap in its entirety. Look at Gasly, he went from a Red Bull to a car that’s a second slower, a car he’s never driven before. Did he suddenly plummet down the order, finishing miles off where Toro Rosso should’ve been? Not really, eh? 28 seconds off Albon, despite the disadvantage of running an overly long final stint after an extremely early pit stop, a strategy that destroyed many races that day.

            So, no, Kvyat’s remarks cannot be summed up as insinuating that Albon should’ve been up there with Verstappen, fighting for fourth. There is a difference between “he should’ve been at least as good as Verstappen” and “finishing a minute off where Verstappen would have maybe wasn’t that great after all”. A gulf.

          2. Bottom line for me, as I’ve now said ad infinitum, is that it is suspect of Kvyat to not include the fact that this was day three for Albon with the car. If you or he don’t think that’s key, for the sake of this discussion, then that’s the tack you choose to take. I think realistically you both know that you are just trying to take something off of the day Albon had, for you both know he was never possibly going to be on it from minute one. I’d like to think F1 is harder than that. Kvyat is being disingenuous. If he’s all about ‘well Albon was in an RBR so…’ then how about acknowledging AA would normally have started the race much higher up on the grid to begin with. After all, it’s an RBR and it’s one that podiums, so any bloke can do it. Who cares about three days with it, starting from the back with an inherited penalty? It’s an RBR! That’s ALL that matters, lol.

          3. You keep repeating that “only his third day” formula as if it held some deeper truth. I fully acknowledge it, and I come to the conclusion that it’s just one aspect that cannot account for everything. Which is why I mentioned Gasly. Three days in the car, started near the back of the grid, still managed to stay ahead of Albon for most of the race. In a Toro Rosso, that should be nearly a second slower per lap. That third day argument is a double-edged sword, but you fail to acknowledge that, instead preferring to accuse me and a few others of lazy oversimplification, stubborn bias and unrealistic expectations. While at the same time explaining basically everything and anything with the Day Three formula, repeating the same points and accusing Kvyat of not being gracious enough. Seriously, gracious. Why he should be the first one to ever be measured against that standard is beyond me.
            Whatever, I’m forgetting where I was going with this.
            You just seem very offended by the fact that Kvyat thinks that his now-ex team mate got quite a bit of undeserved praise for last race. But he has a point. It really wasn’t a great race, and the fact that it was only his xth (how many? I can’t remember the exact number, it hasn’t been mentioned enough) day in the car can only serve as an understandable excuse, not as a miraculous argument that automatically turns the race into something great. And that’s the nuance you’re seemingly missing. Kvyat and I whoever else don’t think Albon’s race was great. That, however, is not the same as saying his race was terrible. And neither of us is ignoring the fact that Albon was new in the car. It’s just that this argument doesn’t substantially change our assessment. We’re differentiating a whole lot more than you acknowledge, because it appears that you perceive even a slight incompatibility with your view as offensive, a downright travesty, to the point of being unable to accept that those differing views may in fact be based on reason and not be merely driven by spite and resent.

            Consider the length of this reply a form of punishment. It certainly was for me.

          4. As for nase vs robbie’s argument, I think I agree more with nase, as I also didn’t find albon’s performance anything special, let’s make no mistake: he was decent, which is more than can be said about gasly (in red bull, he already did better in TR), kvyat is however questioning if he wouldn’t do better than him, with reason, remember that kvyat was demoted mostly unfairly, to promote verstappen, which made sense seeing verstappen is a schumacher-like driver, but even then kvyat wasn’t that bad, just was unlucky to be promoted shortly before verstappen came around, and that the other driver was still very good, ricciardo, so there was no more space for him.

            Albon started last but he wouldn’t have got best of the rest if not through some great luck in the last laps (giovinazzi + norris) and best of the rest I think is roughly expected from drivers with a top 3 car nowadays, bottas sometimes failed to do that but he didn’t have a perfect car, nor as good an overtaking track as this.

            He had very very little f1 and red bull experience, so let’s see how he does in the next races, also do not count the gap against him this one time: we’ve seen time and time again that even when you’re incredibly fast and start last you end up accumulating such a gap due to the various overtakes you need to do that you’re not in competition with those who started ahead, next race the gap will matter a lot more, if verstappen drives well and albon isn’t that great he’s perfectly capable of finishing ahead even starting from the back!

          5. Why does 1st weekend matter, these are F1 drivers. Hmm, what did Max do in his first weekend at Red Bull, oh yea, he WON. Don’t make excuses for Alex, he didn’t if you heard his post race interview. He did what he should have done in that car, even driving less than full beans because that car is darn good.

  7. Jose Lopes da Silva
    5th September 2019, 15:28

    Albon’s race was good because of the comparation with Gasly. In itself, it was not that good.

    Anyway, everyone point-scorer’s race seemed very strong, given the unusual amounts of “retirements”:
    – Verstappen
    – the McLarens
    – Raikkonen
    – the Renaults disappearing out of contention, specially Ricciardo
    – the Haas disappearing out of contention, as usual
    – Giovinazzi, offering a point to Stroll.

    Kvyat’s race was very good indeed, but would he have ended up has high if it wasn’t for all that mess?

  8. I dunno this kinda comes across a little sour. Given Albon is considerably less experienced in F1 racing and managing the tyres than Verstappen, Gasly and Kvyat himself and unlike Kvyat is driving a new and unfamiliar car with a new team, I’d say finishing 5th-6th with Verstappen out and Norris’s retirement is pretty much the best result he could have hoped for.

    I’m happy to go crazy about his performance because to be honest if Gasly was driving that Red Bull I doubt he’d have finished as high as Albon did. In fact I’d say Albon looked more at home in that car in his first race in it than Gasly managed in 12 races. This weekend will be another test, to see if Belgium was just a fortunate race or if Albon’s ability is as good as his promise.

    1. No doubt gasly on a RB would’ve done worse than albon, but takes nothing to beat him, kvyat and some of us question if he’d beat kvyat.

  9. You can’t argue with the logic! However let’s give give Albon some time before we judge him. At least till after Italy.

  10. Albon’s position might not have been so good, but what impressed me was some of the (clean!) passes he made in not-so-easy locations on track. Kvyatt had his shot, this seems like sour grapes.

    1. Kvyat didn’t have a shot, everyone keeps saying that. Anyone in that second seat would’ve been replaced by the max effect. Red Bull left Kvyat out to dry, they exaggerated all his errors and basically used a few rookie mistakes, to justify replacing him. They had infinitely more patience with Gasly. As a team should.

      1. Sounds like you’re the one exaggerating things on Kvyat’s behalf. As if they left him out to dry, exaggerated his errors, and based their decisions on a few rookie mistakes. Come on now you’re just making yourself sound bitter at Albon’s fifth too. Kvyat did have his shot, and in fact is now back for another shot. They know what they have in Kvyat and have now given AA the shot so they’ll know what they have in him too. There’s a chance Kvyat could still get the RBR ride beside Max for next year.

        1. However let’s say albon’s performance will be weighted more favourably than kvyat, through no fault of his own, as he drove red bull ages ago and now is doing at least similar if not better than albon.

  11. Wow. So salty.
    Albon has a lot of pressure on his shoulders as they actually expect something from him.

    They dont expect nothing from Kvyat. He is literally there to fill a gap.
    So what he did doesnt matter.

    Albon brought the result they were expecting and better than most of what Gasly achieved. That’s what matters for them.

    1. If that is how a driver who is there to fill a gap drives, then maybe teams should stop expecting anything from their drivers and start telling them what they do doesn’t matter cause it nets wonderful performances.

      1. Well, he isn’t getting a seat unless Albon does pretty poorly at his shot. And this after Gasly was demoted.

        So, there you can see how much they’re valuing him. The guy has to do great with a TR car and wait for two other guys to fail. And still isn’t guaranteed that he’ll get the seat if Albon also fails.

  12. Certainly are a lot of people lining up to bash Albon for doing exactly what he was supposed to do. Good thing he’s pretty astute at doing his own self-assessment. God help him if he should ever actually beat Max when they’re on equal footing.

  13. This is the kind of comment that can come back to haunt Kvyat if Albon turns out good at RBR (he shows promise).

    On the contrary, this is not the comment that will be specifically be picked up as being prescient if Albon turns out to be a dud.

    Yes, I’m sure it must grate that he’s been passed over for the big team, but Kvyat might have served himself better by offering up a more diplomatic response.

    1. I agree, he didn’t help himself with the response. But he spoke facts, I think albon won’t take to heart. But we all know the ones that matter, usually hate those kinds of responses, not matter how reasonable they may be.

  14. Kvyat has a good point. He drove a better race then Albon. But there is no footage of it anywhere. F1 wants to hype Albon so i guess they don’t want Kvyat to overshadow that…

  15. While I also think Albon’s race was nothing special, Kvyat is still a sorry jealous joke – instead of supporting his fellow driver, who has to adapt to a new car and team, he still tries to show that he is somehow better.

    And this is from driver who has been demoted and dropped already!
    On his place I would have stayed silent, for his own good.

    1. He is just Angry because he drove a good race but F1 didn’t show much of him and on the Internet there is zero footage of Kvyat his race.. F1 is trying to hype Albon.. but is it really needed to Hide Kvyat’s race to accomplish that?? Are they scared Kvyat his performance would overshadow Albon?

  16. They both drove very good race. But if Kvyat wants to progress from Toro Rosso, he would need to get out of Red Bull…where Albon will do great in the future…or at least has that ability.

  17. Töma Gavrichenkov
    5th September 2019, 17:13

    That was a question of a bitter taste in the first place. If you expect anything but a shy response you’d better talk with Dr. Marko or Chris Horner on that matter. The reporter just wanted a sound headline, and that’s what he got.

  18. I think Kvyat needs to remember his own Red Bull debut (especially considering how much more experienced he was) before criticising Albon’s!

  19. Kvyat was lucky at the start and barely progressed from there. While Albon showed some great overtaking moves in a car he barely knew and with an engine two specs older than Kvyat’s.

  20. It was a bad performance while he was in 14 gasly in a supposedly slower torro roso was in like 6th despite not starting that much further ahead. The only reason he finished so high is because of the retirements and mistakes from teams

  21. Everyone is making that Red Bull car better than it actually is, and that thread is evidence of this.

  22. I agree fully, the praise Albon is getting is ridiculous at best. He is new in the car so hes excused but in no way was he at the level he needs to be.

    1. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
      5th September 2019, 21:05

      He’s getting this much praise because his predecessor did so poorly. And to be fair, he looks to be an improvement on Gasly. Remember Australia? Gasly spent not just 36 laps, but the entire race behind Kvyat.

      1. I just didn’t think he was being overly praised. Not that I sought out a lot of commentary about his day beyond the post-race coverage on Sky, but I thought it was fairly well understood that Albon had a good day but needs to do more. He as much said it himself that he struggled on the yellows initially and felt better with the car on the reds. No surprise. He hung in there, did what he could under the circumstances, and will take it from there.

  23. The reporter pushed his buttons and he danced…

    It is the kind of reaction that will do him no good in F1.

  24. How did Daniil finish in his first race for RBR? was it behind Toro Rosso? :-)

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