F1 | AlphaTauri, Kvyat: “I like the Red Bull Ring, it has an old-school layout”

Formula 1 will finally return to the track after a long wait due to the global emergency that forced the Circus to stop the championship even before it started. It will do so in Austria, with a double event on the same circuit which represents an absolute first for this sport.

Among the teams that have high expectations for the new season is AlphaTauri which, like last year, has intensified its collaboration with Red Bull, making the most of the regulation to obtain as many components as possible from the Anglo-Austrian team , therefore taking what was good from the RB15. Naturally, however, a lot has been done by the engineers of the Scuderia di Faenza, who have worked intensely to repeat the good results achieved in 2019. On the eve of the first round of the season, Daniil Kvyat spoke in the team preview: “After the cancellation of the Melbourne race, I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible, because that is the ideal place to be in certain situations. As soon as I returned the lockdown started, so I spent the quarantine in my apartment in Munich. It was a different period than usual in which we tried to adapt and find different things to do, including a bit of sport: the important thing was not to sit around doing nothing. Some aspects weren't so bad and I even slept a little more than usual! After a while, though, it got pretty monotonous. It was the longest period without driving a race car since I had been out of F1 for a year, on that occasion I had already experienced a long break,” said the Russian.

“When the kart tracks reopened at the beginning of May, I rushed there. It was nice to be able to ride again. I toured a lot, both for fun and to keep muscle memory alive. During the lockdown I stayed in contact with Mattia, my race engineer. I have a small simulator at home and we did some qualifying tests together with him. We were connected via an iPad that I kept next to me and he spoke to me as if we were facing a real test. At that moment, it was the best that could be done. I know that many other F1 drivers have dabbled in sim racing, but I have to say that it's not really up my alley, because it's not like driving a real car. At the moment, I haven't been able to travel to the UK to use the team's real simulator, due to the restrictions in place, so we'll see how the situation develops in the coming weeks.”

“As far as racing is concerned, we will tackle this season by focusing one race at a time. I will race where I am told to, because we trust in the people who manage this sport who have worked hard and believe everything can be done safely, both for us and for those around us. We are in good hands, let's hope there are no surprises. On our recent filming day we worked wearing masks all the time and I'd say it's something you get used to pretty quickly, just like when the Halo was introduced. You get used to it after a few hours. One thing we will have to get used to, however, will be the absence of fans. It will have a strange effect to see the empty stands, the public is an important element of this sport and we will miss it."

“As for the rest, it is difficult to make predictions. In terms of data to refer to, we only have that acquired last winter in Barcelona. We will arrive in Austria with a good plan to face the Red Bull Ring and then we'll see. It's a track that I like, with an old-school layout and lots of fast corners. I always liked racing there. We will stay in Austria for a while, we will do two races in succession: it is a nice place to be and we will be able to dedicate some time to training in the open air,” concluded Kvyat.