Daniil Kvyat is ready to wow his home fans in Sochi as he bids to put behind him a different Singapore Grand Prix weekend.
Kvyat’s Singapore saw him out qualified by teammate Pierre Gasly, and in the race itself tangled with Kimi Räikkönen on lap forty-nine as the Russian drove home to a disappointing fifteenth place finish.
”I was getting a bit stuck behind people when I had fresher tyres. This year it was usually good for me and then in Singapore maybe it wasn’t so good. My mirrors were foggy, so I couldn’t really fight with people properly. The race was just difficult to be honest. We had contact with Kimi, but by that point my race already wasn’t looking very good.”
The build-up to the 2019 Russian Grand Prix has been mired with rumours from the Daily Mail newspaper that the Russian Grand Prix will leave Sochi and head for a street race in St Petersburg a plan that been reportedly been approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kvyat believes that it wouldn’t be a bad idea moving the race to a more accessible location where spectators can travel from Europe to Russia.
”Yeah, I think as long as there is a racing in Russia I am up for it. Maybe it’s not a bad idea to have it closer to that region, also, where it’s more accessible to the people from Moscow, from St Petersburg, maybe it will bring more spectators which is cool, and maybe also from Europe, from Finland, let’s say, it’s a very popular sport there, it will be cool.”
The Russian was also pressed on what he thought about plans to change F1’s qualifying system, where reverse grid races are set to be trialled at three Grand Prix weekends next season, with the idea getting the thumbs down by F1 starlets Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
”Yeah, it sounds just like a short fix to a bigger problem, which is just that we need to try and bring all the teams closer competition-wise. There’s still a big gap between the top three teams and the rest of the field and if we could have five or six teams competing for podium and a win I think it would be just a lot more exciting racing as well.”
