There are many interesting team mate battles currently going on in F1 at the moment but the one that fascinates me the most is the current one at Red Bull. Ricciardo vs Kvyat may not be a world champion vs champion fight but it is certainly a very important year for both drivers. Last year Ricciardo played the confident new boy bashing down the big named champion but this year he has to become team leader. Kvyat on the other hand was the young upstart at Torro Rosso who impressed people with speed and performance but this year he has to add results to that resume as well.
2014 saw Daniel Ricciardo become one of everyones favourite drivers. Hamilton may have been champion but Ricciardo was the people’s champion after a season that read like a movie script. We might as well have started calling him Riccy. In fact that is a very good analogy. Riccy spent a deal of time in the lower reaches of the sport (HRT) before getting his break when he had to fight a highly rated heavy weight in Apollo Creed(JEV). The first match ended in a draw but the re-match saw Riccy win with a clear knock-out. The next year saw Riccy pitted against Mr T (or Mr V) and opponent no one ever thought he could beat. He did of course to rapturous applause. Whats the next move? Well a young Russian kid has knocked out his one time rival and friend Apollo Vergne and has put him out the game for good. Now Riccy has to take on the Russian contender and unfortunately the facilities he has to do it in are not of good quality. Can he rise to the challenge and does he still have the eye of the tiger?
If you don’t know the Rocky films then the above might seem like a load of nonsense to you but I think the point of it is that Ricciardo is at a difficult point right now. If he beats Kvyat this season then so what? He should be doing. If he loses to him then suddenly it raises big questions on him. He may be everyones sweetheart right now but Formula One is a very fickle world. Today’s heroes can quickly become tomorrows villains and vice versa. You only have to look at how quickly Vettel has gone from being booed on the podium to the outburst of love, good wishes and the ‘I always rated him’s he got for his win at Malaysia. One poor season and Ricciardo could very well be viewed as a flash in the pan.
Kvyat has less to lose in this battle but he has to be looking over his shoulder already at the 2 guys in the Torro Rosso. The panty throwing expletives being used by the media to describe just two performances by Max Verstappen make it quite clear which way the mood is swinging. Kvyat needs to match up well to Ricciardo to holds his position and needs to put in some eye catching performances to justify his place there. Given the poor car he seems to have inherited at the moment that’s not going to be easy and I imagine that’s why we are already seeing him make statements in the media on how the current Red Bull car is ‘unacceptable’. Kvyat is a cool customer though and seems to be under estimated quite frequently before coming through at the end.
Battle has been joined already and so far Ricciardo is 2-0 up for qualifying. Race wise we didn’t get to see how Kvyat would have gone in Australia but Malaysia did see an interesting instalment. The Red Bulls finished 9th and 10th with Kvyat leading the way home. This is despite him starting behind Ricciardo, being double stacked at the pitstops and having to recover from being spun round after an incident with Hulkenberg. Both Bulls were struggling with brake issues and with the Torro Rosso’s finishing in front of them the fact that Kvyat lead Ricciardo home has gone largely uncommented on. Its certainly a sign to me that we are going to have an interesting battle here.
Judging by the ‘where does your heart lie’ thread we had on here earlier we have a lot of Danny Ric fans on CTA so I imagine the majority think he is going to come out on top. We also have a few on here who think that Kvyat maybe didn’t do enough to justify that Red Bull seat. It will be interesting to see how views change as the season goes on.
2014 saw Daniel Ricciardo become one of everyones favourite drivers. Hamilton may have been champion but Ricciardo was the people’s champion after a season that read like a movie script. We might as well have started calling him Riccy. In fact that is a very good analogy. Riccy spent a deal of time in the lower reaches of the sport (HRT) before getting his break when he had to fight a highly rated heavy weight in Apollo Creed(JEV). The first match ended in a draw but the re-match saw Riccy win with a clear knock-out. The next year saw Riccy pitted against Mr T (or Mr V) and opponent no one ever thought he could beat. He did of course to rapturous applause. Whats the next move? Well a young Russian kid has knocked out his one time rival and friend Apollo Vergne and has put him out the game for good. Now Riccy has to take on the Russian contender and unfortunately the facilities he has to do it in are not of good quality. Can he rise to the challenge and does he still have the eye of the tiger?
If you don’t know the Rocky films then the above might seem like a load of nonsense to you but I think the point of it is that Ricciardo is at a difficult point right now. If he beats Kvyat this season then so what? He should be doing. If he loses to him then suddenly it raises big questions on him. He may be everyones sweetheart right now but Formula One is a very fickle world. Today’s heroes can quickly become tomorrows villains and vice versa. You only have to look at how quickly Vettel has gone from being booed on the podium to the outburst of love, good wishes and the ‘I always rated him’s he got for his win at Malaysia. One poor season and Ricciardo could very well be viewed as a flash in the pan.
Kvyat has less to lose in this battle but he has to be looking over his shoulder already at the 2 guys in the Torro Rosso. The panty throwing expletives being used by the media to describe just two performances by Max Verstappen make it quite clear which way the mood is swinging. Kvyat needs to match up well to Ricciardo to holds his position and needs to put in some eye catching performances to justify his place there. Given the poor car he seems to have inherited at the moment that’s not going to be easy and I imagine that’s why we are already seeing him make statements in the media on how the current Red Bull car is ‘unacceptable’. Kvyat is a cool customer though and seems to be under estimated quite frequently before coming through at the end.
Battle has been joined already and so far Ricciardo is 2-0 up for qualifying. Race wise we didn’t get to see how Kvyat would have gone in Australia but Malaysia did see an interesting instalment. The Red Bulls finished 9th and 10th with Kvyat leading the way home. This is despite him starting behind Ricciardo, being double stacked at the pitstops and having to recover from being spun round after an incident with Hulkenberg. Both Bulls were struggling with brake issues and with the Torro Rosso’s finishing in front of them the fact that Kvyat lead Ricciardo home has gone largely uncommented on. Its certainly a sign to me that we are going to have an interesting battle here.
Judging by the ‘where does your heart lie’ thread we had on here earlier we have a lot of Danny Ric fans on CTA so I imagine the majority think he is going to come out on top. We also have a few on here who think that Kvyat maybe didn’t do enough to justify that Red Bull seat. It will be interesting to see how views change as the season goes on.
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