Verstappen and Kvyat Swap Seats for Spanish Grand Prix

[Diehl]

Is Max a better driver than Kvyat? Well, maybe... Probably.

But, I still thinking it was a unfair movement by Red Bull. Kvyat doesn't deserve all this discredit, he made some good good races, is a bit sad to watch his career be burned for a single bad race.

 

[Leonardo Chaves]

Red Bull has always shown a cut-throat mentality with their contracted drivers, but this is another level of brutal decision making...

With that said, i never thought much of Kvyat, he walked into a multi WC team after an average rookie season just because RB was done with JEV and he was the next in line.
Judging purely on his driving in 2015 and early 2016, he didn't seem up to it IMO, and was going to be replaced in the near future.
It seems radical for Red Bull to not allow him more time to prove himself, but he already got more time then Perez and Magnussen got at Mclaren.

Plus i'm excited for Max, i'm a Verstappen convert since the final 3rd of 2015.

 

[Erwin Greven]

Helmut Marko is a terrible manager and shouldn't be heading any program.

Quiet the opposite. He solved a smouldering problem in STR, demotes Kvyat to STR where he can race under less pressure. He can compare Kvyat and Sainz.
He has now a top driver in RBR, Ricciardo and adds Verstappen who now is less eager to switch to another team. And he can now compare Ricciardo and Verstappen.

Magnificent managing.

 

[paracletus]

It appears as if they've been looking for an excuse to drop kvyat in favour of vers (who can drive, but who whines far too much on the radio). Quite annoying when you're trying to watch a race.

 

[Deleted member 130869]

Quiet the opposite. He solved a smouldering problem in STR, demotes Kvyat to STR where he can race under less pressure. He can compare Kvyat and Sainz.
He has now a top driver in RBR, Ricciardo and adds Verstappen who now is less eager to switch to another team. And he can now compare Ricciardo and Verstappen.

Magnificent managing.

If you want to just go by some media reports. There is an issue between Sainz and Verstappen but it's a teenager against a very young adult vs a multibillion company. Kvyat has had better race finished than Ricciardo overall, and they both have been quite close in points.

However, you're free to have your view of everything, including the way that guy handles the business.

 

[Erwin Greven]

And what are your sources?

 

[Jonathan Menéndez]

Things I hear are a bit different. Of course his engineers can't go to RB. They don't know anything about that car.
Problem seems to be completely inside the team. There seemed to be a Sainz side and a Verstappen side there. It is being said that Sainz' engineers have asked things the Verstappen side didn't like and the same stuff has been done to the other side. Last thing was the Verstappen side with Pujolar not adhering to the TR tactics in qualifying in Russia. Pujolar didn't follow up what Tost wanted or something like that.
In other words it seems Verstappen and Sainz were having a conflict which was completely internal in the teams as well, and they can't drive together in the team as that brings too many problems. Verstappens race engineer is also a Catalan, while Sainz is a Castilian. Also something that's not working fine. So there's a reason why Verstappen had to go to RB and why his race engineer has been fired.

Sounds a little like Lorenzo moaning about Rossi for changing gears after looking at Lorenzo's telemetry... at Yamaha they have things clear... only love for one of them.
Red Bull has everything well tied.

One thing, Castillian is a little vague, Sainz is "Madrileño" (from Madrid). But this is not football (Barca vs Madrid) or a stupid political thing (both stupid).
If we look at where are the main racing tracks in Spain, we can understand that from those areas come out the largest number of pilots, mechanics and engineers, since there are also schools for all three.
I doubt that being "Castilian" or "catalan" influence some two professionals at the highest level, who started dealing with "Catalan", "Castilian", "Valencia", "Andalusian" .....

 

[Martin Maaskant]

We can chalk up a lot of conspiracy theories about this move bot from where I'm standing RedBull wasn't impressed enough with Kvyat and they are impressed by Verstappen. That RedBull solved a few other problems on the side that is a win for them but that is not the main reason behind the swap. Helmut Marko made it very clear from the beginning that he is a huge fan of Verstappen. I only hope that the move is not to soon for Verstappen. Anyway what done is done, now we can see how good Verstappen really is en how good Kvyat is in comparison with Sainz.