Formula 1's Latest Rumours, Talk: Daniil Kvyat, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, More
Following the elation of claiming his second Formula One podium finish in China, Daniil Kvyat could have done with a shoulder to cry on in the aftermath of Sunday's Russian Grand Prix.
In front of his home crowd sitting in a grandstand that bears his name, the 22-year-old suffered a first-lap meltdown at the Sochi Autodrom, where he sparked two separate collisions in the space of two corners, ruining the afternoons of Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in the process.
But he has received little sympathy from his own team as both Christian Horner and Dr. Helmut Marko were in agreement that Kvyat had nobody to blame but himself, with the latter suggesting the youngster will be forced to explain his actions over the coming days.
Having suddenly slowed in the middle of the flat-out bend of Turn 3, Vettel was hardly an innocent victim, and his second retirement in four races has—even at this early stage—ended his chances of securing a fifth world championship in 2016.
Although the Ferrari driver is already 67 points behind championship leader Nico Rosberg, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has insisted the Prancing Horse will not give up.
As Ferrari refuse to accept defeat, Rosberg is refusing to celebrate victory after claiming his fourth successive win of the campaign in Russia and extending his comfortable points advantage over Vettel and team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Rosberg is now the overwhelming favourite to secure the 2016 crown, but he has admitted his luck will almost certainly change given Hamilton's unfortunate start to the season.
The sheer regularity of the Briton's engine problems has led to cries of foul play in cyberspace, with Toto Wolff angered by suggestions that Mercedes have intentionally sabotaged the No. 44 car.
Closing this week's roundup is McLaren-Honda racing director Eric Boullier, who has explained why Fernando Alonso could have finished even higher than sixth at Sochi.
Red Bull to Discuss Disastrous Russian GP Performance with Daniil Kvyat
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Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko has confirmed the team will question Daniil Kvyat over his disastrous performance in Sunday's Russian Grand Prix.
A fortnight after claiming the second podium finish of his F1 career in China, Kvyat limped to 15th place in his home race at the Sochi Autodrom after a lacklustre opening lap.
Having started eighth, Kvyat slid into Sebastian Vettel under braking for Turn 2, with the Ferrari driver rebounding off the sister Red Bull car of Daniel Ricciardo.
A matter of seconds after that incident, Kvyat and Vettel collided again in the long left-hander of Turn 3, where the German appeared to slow mid-corner before the Red Bull smashed into the Ferrari and punted Vettel out of the race.
Per Motorsport.com's Charles Bradley, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was reluctant to defend his driver, suggesting Kvyat had "gone for too much too soon" and "totally screwed" the team's afternoon by giving "away a lot of points."
And Marko, the head of Red Bull's young-driver scheme, has revealed the 22-year-old will be forced to explain himself over the coming days.
Per Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, he said:
"Let's put it this way: Kvyat was over-motivated.
Braking too late once and hitting another car would be acceptable in front of his home crowd, but this doesn't apply for the second crash.
It's a pity because he did not only ruin Vettel's race and Ricciardo's race, but also his own race. He had to do an extra stop. It was a day of disaster for Red Bull.
"
Per the same source, Marko—who recently told German publication Sport Bild (h/t Planet F1) that Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen is on course for a promotion to Red Bull, potentially as a replacement for Kvyat, in 2017—told German television station RTL: "Let's cool down a bit. During the week we will talk about this.
"I said one word to [Kvyat]. The rest still has to be said."
In a separate Motorsport.com article, Kvyat told Bradley the incident was "the messiest" of his racing career before apologising "to everyone who was involved."
He added: "We have to speak, we’ll talk and that’s all we can really do. We will talk our points of view, of course it’s easy now to attack me and I guess everyone will but I’m OK with that."
Ferrari Refusing to 'Give Up' on 2016 Title Despite Sebastian Vettel Retirement
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Maurizio Arrivabene, the Ferrari team principal, has insisted the team are refusing to give up on the 2016 world championship despite Sebastian Vettel suffering a second retirement in four races at the Russian Grand Prix.
In an effort to get themselves on a par with the all-conquering Mercedes team, Ferrari introduced an upgraded power unit at the Sochi Autodrom, but the Prancing Horse produced their least convincing performance of the season in Russia.
After losing track time with a stoppage in Friday practice, Vettel was hindered by a five-place gearbox-change penalty after qualifying, when he finished more than 0.7 seconds adrift of pole-sitter Nico Rosberg.
The four-time world champion twice made contact with Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat on the opening lap of the race, with the second incident resulting in Vettel spinning into the crash barriers at Turn 3 almost a month after his engine blowout on the formation lap of the Bahrain GP.
Although Kimi Raikkonen claimed a decent third-place finish for Ferrari, Vettel is already 67 points adrift of championship leader Nico Rosberg following the Mercedes driver's fourth win in as many races.
But while Arrivabene—who claimed Vettel "was going ballistic" after the incident with Kvyat, per Autosport's Edd Straw—has admitted Ferrari can afford no more errors, he is confident the team can recover from their frustrating start to the season to overcome Rosberg and Mercedes.
He told Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble:
"If I had to define the championship this year, we are not the kind of team that likes to win comfortably.
We are looking for a big challenge and OK, what has happened, it is part of the racing story.
We had a problem with the software with Sebastian [in Bahrain] and a turbo problem with Kimi [in Australia], but it was not bad luck: there is always a human mistake.
But I prefer to have this sort of problem now, than to have it during the course of the season or later on. But we need to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
The championship: we are not giving up. I don't want to the team to give up. We want to put all our energy in from now on.
We have 17 races. So if we win 12, they can win the other five and then you can fight! But seriously: it is not over and we are not going to give up.
"
Per the same source, Arrivabene admitted Ferrari "can perform much better" but suggested the benefits of their engine update will be more noticeable at the next round in Spain. However, he added that Mercedes "are not sleeping and waiting for" Ferrari to catch up.
After Vettel and Raikkonen collided in China, Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne warned that "the clock is on" for the team to return to winning ways, as reported by Sky Sports' James Galloway.
And Marchionne has again expressed his dissatisfaction with his employees' performance, telling Italian media (h/t Motorsport.com) how it "breaks [his] soul to see a Ferrari that is suffering so much" and referring to the Russian GP as "a bad day."
Nico Rosberg Aware His Luck Will Change After Latest Victory in Russia
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Despite claiming his fourth consecutive victory of the 2016 season in Russia, Nico Rosberg has admitted his luck will soon change, explaining the importance of immediately bouncing back from any future setbacks.
Having extended his career-best winning streak, which began at last November's Mexican GP, to seven, Rosberg is just two victories away from equalling Sebastian Vettel's all-time record of nine straight wins.
The German has benefited from good fortune in the opening weeks of the campaign, with his closest rivals—including Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton—all either suffering reliability issues and on-track collisions in Australia, Bahrain, China and Russia.
After extracting maximum points from the first four races, Rosberg has a comfortable lead in the drivers' standings, although his dominance came under threat at the halfway stage of the Russian GP, with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff telling the team's official website how the German was forced to nurse an MGU-K issue.
Rosberg has acknowledged his flawless start to the season has exceeded all expectations, but he is mindful of the fact that he will not continue to have it quite so easy.
Per Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, he said:
"Of course it is not something I could have expected to start the season with—four race wins—of course not, but that is the way it is.
I am very happy about it. It has been a great four races, very enjoyable, and I am aware it will not continue like that forever.
The sport is all about ups and downs, and the down will come at some point. You just need to mentally prepare for that to come straight back up when it happens. But at the moment I am enjoying it.
"
According to the same source, Rosberg admitted Mercedes were "surprised" that Ferrari "were not close at all" over the Russian GP weekend, but is "well aware" that Hamilton will retaliate "when he has a clean weekend," suggesting his team-mate remains "as motivated and quick as ever."
Per Sky Sports' Pete Gill, Rosberg added that while he doesn't necessarily "miss" racing head-to-head with Hamilton, "the ecstatic feeling isn't there" due to the lack of competition.
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Toto Wolff Outraged by Claims Mercedes Are Sabotaging Lewis Hamilton
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Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, has reacted angrily to suggestions the Silver Arrows are deliberately sabotaging Lewis Hamilton's car in his title battle with team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton has endured plenty of misfortune in the opening weeks of the 2016 season, having made poor starts in the Australian and Bahrain grands prix and suffered an increasing number of technical problems with his once-bulletproof car.
The three-time world champion was handed a gearbox-change penalty ahead of the Chinese GP weekend, and he was forced to start from the back of the grid in Shanghai after an MGU-H failure left him unable to set a lap time in qualifying.
Hamilton's bad luck continued on Saturday in Russia, where he was prevented from participating in the third segment of qualifying having suffered a repeat engine problem, with Mercedes' official Twitter account later responding to claims of sabotage.
After suffering a "water pressure" problem in the closing stages of the race, Hamilton added fuel to the fire, telling Sky Sports' Matthew Morlidge how the team "all of a sudden" swapped the mechanics working on their cars "for no apparent reason."
But Wolff has dismissed the notion that Mercedes are deliberately hurting the championship prospects of Hamilton, who is already 43 points adrift of Rosberg, telling Sky Sports:
"First of all, I'm not going to respond to every lunatic that sends a message. Some of them are abusing the team and abusing members of the team and I would never allow that.
Number two, the last thing we would do is sabotage Hamilton—he's a great friend to us. He's a lovely person within the team and we feel awful because he's not been able to perform the best and we are letting him down.
We have moved heaven and earth to move parts overnight into Sochi. The engine guys started work at 2 a.m., the chassis guys started at 5 a.m. They are doing their utmost because Lewis is so important to us and we don't want this to happen.
But I think we need to keep it in the normal world!
"
Niki Lauda, Mercedes' non-executive chairman, confirmed the claims of sabotage are wide of the mark, referring to the conspiracy theories as "bulls--t" during Sky Sports' television coverage of the event.
Meanwhile, Wolff explained the lengths Mercedes went to in order to prepare Hamilton's W07 for the race, telling Sky Sports' William Esler and James Galloway how Lauda, technical chief Paddy Lowe and even F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone all played a "huge role" in the arrival of new parts.
Fernando Alonso Could Have Challenged Williams in Russia, Reckon McLaren-Honda
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Eric Boullier, the McLaren-Honda racing director, has suggested Fernando Alonso would have been capable of challenging Williams in the Russian Grand Prix had he not been forced to prioritise fuel saving.
After just missing out on a place in the third segment of qualifying, McLaren arguably produced their best performance since they re-established their partnership with Honda at the start of 2015 at the Sochi Autodrom.
Having evaded the first-lap carnage, Alonso ran comfortably in the top 10 for much of the race at a circuit not expected to play to the strengths of the underpowered, inefficient Honda power unit.
With sixth place, the two-time world champion claimed his first points finish since the 2015 Hungarian GP, and later told the team's official website how finishing in the top 10 should be a "regular target from now on."
Boullier has explained the vices of Honda's engine may have prevented Alonso—who set the fifth-fastest lap of the race—from securing an even better result, revealing the Spaniard lost 50 seconds through fuel saving alone.
If that figure were to be subtracted from Alonso's race time, he would have finished just 2.829 seconds adrift of fourth-placed Valtteri Bottas, who started on the front row of the grid in Russia.
And the Frenchman believes Alonso's performance is evidence of the gains McLaren have made.
Per Autosport's Ben Anderson and Lawrence Barretto, he explained:
"We can see that we are the team that have a lot of fuel saving for obvious reasons.
But with Fernando you could see towards the end of the race he was more than 1.2s seconds faster [per lap].
So without fuel saving we'd save another 50 seconds which we would've had at the end of the race.
If you look, we are with Williams [without fuel-saving] so it's the kind of progress we need to go [further].
But that the pace was good and the drivers were happy with the car balance.
Fernando had some fun.
"
Per the same source, Boullier added that McLaren's race pace was "better than expected," with Alonso outlining his belief that the team "seem more and more competitive every race."
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