Scuderia AlphaTauri driver Daniil Kvyat ended his 2020 campaign just shy of taking points in today´s race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as he finished in eleventh place.
The race didn´t go as smooth as it did for his team-mate Pierre Gasly, Kvyat got caught up behind some cars in the early stages of the race costing him some time to progress further up the order.
Beside the issues with traffic getting in his way, Kvyat also struggled with the tyres of his AlphaTauri AT01 car. Kvyat and the team expect the very hot asphalt would degrade the rear wheels but instead it were the front tyres that took it – so he started to have some problems with understeer that caused him to lose a few places.
“It’s frustrating as I would have wanted to finish the season with a better result, but unfortunately today I got stuck in a train behind Vettel and that cost a lot of time. I think the key point of the race was during the first stint: on the Soft tyres we expected the degradation to be on the rear but, instead, we finished the front tyres and when you have understeer you’re a sitting duck.” Kvyat said. “I lost a couple of positions to some key cars before the virtual safety car which put me on the back foot. It’s a shame to finish just outside of the points as the pace was there, but recovering from the first stint was very hard.
“The season as a whole was alright, we had some really good races, and others where we should have scored more points, but for one reason or another, it didn’t happen. This is how things go sometimes, but I would like to thank everyone in the team for another intense season together.”
Franz Tost, Team Principal of AlphaTauri summed up the season from the team’s perspective:”Both cars had a successful Qualifying making it to Q3 yesterday, so we started the race with Daniil in P7 and Pierre in P9. While this was a good result, it meant we were at a bit of a disadvantage as we had to start the race on the Option tyre.
“The virtual safety car was brought out on lap 10, followed by a full safety car and we called Pierre and Daniil in for a double stack at that time to change both onto the Base compound, which they ran until the end of the race. After the Safety Car, both drivers started to fight for positions, with Pierre managing to overtake Leclerc, Stroll and Vettel to finish in eighth position.”
Tost continued: “Daniil got stuck in traffic and ended the race just outside the points in P11. This weekend the race pace was not at the level we expected, but in general Scuderia AlphaTauri had a fantastic season this year, we were strong and competitive, achieving 107 points in the Constructors’ Championship, which is the highest number we’ve ever scored in our Formula 1 history. It was a big success for the team, so a big thank you to everyone in the team, both in Italy and in the UK. Thank you also to our Japanese friends at Honda as they provided us with a very strong and reliable power unit. I also want to thank our drivers Pierre and Daniil, as their experience helped elevate us to a higher and more competitive level.”
As it stands now at the moment, this race could mean the last F1 race for Kvyat as he hasn´t got any contract yet for the next season, but, speculations are circulating around that he could receive a seat for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing if they decides to get Alexander Albon out.
