- Red Bull
Kvyat rues small but costly Red Bull debut error
Daniil Kvyat paid a heavy price for a small mistake on his first day driving the Red Bull RB10 as he spent much of Monday in the unusual situation of driving without a front wing in Jerez.
A skirmish with a wall in the morning saw Kvyat, who took over from Daniel Ricciardo, return to the Red Bull pit with a broken front wing. But Red Bull did not have a replacement on hand in Jerez, meaning the rest of Kvyat's day was limited to one-lap stints without a front wing.
Kvyat says the mistake itself was a hard one to understand.
"It was extremely small but one of the most costly ones," Kvyat said. "Well we had to change our plans a bit this morning. These things happen and they happened in the wrong moment - it didn't happen for a long while and it happened today. So we had to change our plan and work with what we had at that point and still do the things that we found useful to do. There were many factors, there was this and that and cold tyres. I was going slowly but sometimes it's not even enough, sometimes it felt like it was out of my power. You don't spin out every day on the out lap."
When asked how the car felt with no front wing, Kvyat joked: "Understeery!"
He says Red Bull was still able to gather data from the handful of laps he did without a front wing.
"We did things that at that point we found useful to do, anything we could do without the front wing basically. I think we got them done quite well and hopefully it will be beneficial to us in the future. The engine is running good, so you can see that. Those sort of things. The garage exit maybe, I don't know. We found things we wanted to test and they were useful for us."
The Russian is trying to stay positive about it knowing he gets back in the car for the final day of testing on Wednesday.
"I've had bigger mistakes than that and unfortunately this is something that happens. You just have to turn the table and look forward to the last day of testing when I can make it up to the team and for myself."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
