Tost told shocked Kvyat that Grosjean’s crash “was absolutely not your fault”

RaceFans Round-up

Posted on

| Written by

In the round-up: AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost described how he reassured a shocked Daniil Kvyat after his role in Romain Grosjean’s huge crash in Bahrain last weekend.

What they say

Tost said that he sought out Kvyat, who had had contact with Grosjean as he crossed the track before crashing, to tell him that he was not responsible for the crash and to try to get his driver to concentrate on the restart when the red flag would end:

Well, I went to him because he was shocked about everything that’s happening, we concentrated enough on the second start, said ‘that was absolutely not your fault’ and Grosjean is not injured as far as I could have seen, and therefore best we concentrated for the race. And this is what he did.

Of course, he was shocked. He immediately asked on the radio after the incident and what happened to Grosjean, but we couldn’t answer him because we didn’t know it ourselves because at this stage they didn’t show anything on TV. We only later came up with the pictures. And then, of course, we saw that Grosjean jumped out of the monocoque

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Comment of the day

Dr Mouse says that Russell being alongside him at Mercedes this weekend puts more pressure on Bottas to deliver a win than if he’d had Hamilton in the other car:

Bottas has a huge advantage, in that he has been driving that car all season. He also has experience of the pressure of being at a top team. Russell, on the other hand, has barely driven the car and is used to being at the bottom end of the grid.

It is not enough for Bottas to beat Russell. Even if the two are of equal ability, his experience with the car should put him a decent step ahead. If Russell finishes close to Bottas or beats him (without extenuating circumstances), most will consider that a strong indication that Russell is the better driver, which puts Bottas future at Mercedes under serious threat.

In short, Bottas needs a convincing win. That won’t really do much to improve his standing, but anything else will make him look very bad. I would not want to be in Bottas’s shoes…

(Actually, what am I saying. I would gladly trade places with Bottas! He gets to drive, not only in F1, but in the best car in F1!)
Dr Mouse

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Riise, Speed Damon, Colm and Rick!

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

On this day in F1

  • Born today in 1924: Roberto Mieres, who went on to score three fourth-place finishes in F1 but never made it onto the podium.

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.

10 comments on “Tost told shocked Kvyat that Grosjean’s crash “was absolutely not your fault””

  1. I forgot to write that Tost was right. It even rhymes.

  2. I share the same sentiment as the COTD. Bottas indeed has to beat Russell, given his considerable advantage in car familiarity over him. Losing to a driver that hasn’t driven the W11 for even a single mm on merit would be quite embarrassing.

    1. As Ricciardo can confirm….

      1. I don’t expect GR to head VB at any point this weekend, but if he does then yeah not only would that raise some eyebrows about GR, but there would be a percentage of folk who would then argue that LH is driving a car that anyone can sit in and win with. But as I say I don’t expect that to be the case.

        I also think Max has a good chance for a win this weekend since his main competitor is absent and VB generally squanders what he has. Gonna be a blast to watch.

  3. Romain is still missing a shoe.
    The swap injects some life into dull f1. Hopefully the cockpit won’t bother Russell. About the cotd, you should not be able to be that much faster than anyone on such a short limited track. Russell has raced at the front end before, leading is not a problem. Surely Bahrain outer will feel like a first day on the job but all things considered it is a great opportunity. I don’t think Russell is Bottas’ threat. Toto signed Bottas to finish behind Lewis, inspired choice, his character and ability make it so Bottas does not give the team or Lewis any headaches. Russell is a threat to Lewis. If Lewis does not sign the contract quick, if Lewis keeps demanding, even though the team almost always engineers something to support him, merc can just show Lewis that there is another marketable Brit they can resort to.

    1. A similar situation led to Ricciardo wandering around for quite a while now without race wins or even a race winning car. So Bottas should not take this lightly

    2. @peartree I’d say Romain is still wearing a shoe. Everyone else seems to be barefoot or wearing flip flops.

  4. Kvyat onboard and radio was… deep.

    He asked « Tell me he’s okay, please tell me he’s okay » then joined his hands like a praying sign, as he rejoined the pitlane.
    I’m sure he thought for the worst.

    1. My goodness and why wouldn’t he? He must have heard the crash over his engine noise and then of course seen the flames in his mirror. Gut wrenching. Glad he was ok too and that Todt went and spoke to him. When push comes to shove the whole grid of teams becomes one big family and will pull together.

  5. If Romain didn’t move right all of a sudden, we would not have seen something horrible…

Comments are closed.