Spanish Grand Prix: Max Verstappen switch should not stop Daniil Kvyat proving himself, says David Coulthard

Danill Kvyat should not look badly on his move to Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso because it’s a chance to prove he belongs in the Formula One paddock, says former race winner David Coulthard.

Kvyat heads to this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona no longer with the Red Bull outfit after the decision was taken to replace him with 18-year-old Max Verstappen – promoting the Dutchman after an impressive debut season in 2015 – following a controversial race in Russia where he spun four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel out of the race.

In what is perhaps a sign of Kvyat demonstrating his maturity to the Red Bull hierarchy, he has taken the demotion as well as he could have, though his task was not made any easier when he was placed alongside Verstappen in the drivers’ press conference on Thursday. Yet Coulthard believes that 22-year-old Kvyat should seize the opportunity in front of him and prove to Red Bull that they were right to select him when replacing Vettel in 2015.

Asked if demotion was too harsh a word to describe the scenario, Coulthard told the Independent: “Absolutely. He’s still a grand prix driver, he’s still a fast grand prix driver and he’s still a lovely bloke. He went straight from GP3 to Formula One, and then straight from Toro Rosso to Red Bull because Sebastian Vettel used a clause in his contract to leave Red Bull early to join Ferrari.

“Things move quickly in Formula One , you’ve got to get on and perform. Kimi Raikkonen is a world champion but he’s not exactly looking like he’s going to win another one. So Ferrari will have to make the decision at some point that they’re going to replace him with someone else, or he may come out and say ‘I’ve had my chance’ and move on. It’s a cycle of life, isn’t it?

“Danill is still very much in the mix and it’s still in his hands to show that he deserves to be in Formula One, and I hope he does. Clearly Red Bull do otherwise they wouldn’t have taken him from one grand prix drive into another, they would have just left him.”

Coulthard’s admission that the world of Formula One moves quickly can be seen no clearer than Red Bull’s driver line-up. It’s been widely suggested that Daniel Ricciardo, the current No 1 at Red Bull, could follow Vettel to Ferrari next season and replace Raikkonen, which could leave Verstappen as the main man at the four-time constructor champions next season. Kvyat once held that expectation, but now the pressure is on Verstappen and Coulthard, who drove for the team from its formation in 2005, believes the son of Jos Verstappen has already shown enough to suggest he will excel in the senior team.

“I think all the indications are that he is more than capable,” says the 13-time grand prix winner. “It’s that wonderfully overused word said to excite people, he’s got lots of ‘potential’. Whether he realises that potential or not will rest on his shoulders, it will rest on the racing gods as to whether he gets the car that gives him the opportunity to win.

“If he does, he’ll win, if he doesn’t he won’t. If he does get in a winning car, Red Bull may win a race this year though clearly there’s a deficit on the engine side. I have no doubt that if you slot him into the Red Bull of three years ago where they had the package of front rows and race wins, he would be in the mix to win a race.”

Verstappen made history last season by breaking a string of records – the youngest ever F1 driver and the youngest driver to score championship points among them – but at the age of 18, is he ready to step into a car that is challenging regularly for the podium?

“I don’t remember people saying ‘this is ridiculous’ when Boris Becker won Wimbledon at 16, they just went ‘wow this is incredible, a 16-year-old has won Wimbledon’,” explains Coulthard.

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“Of course if you start early, you tend to finish early and it’s a very physical sport. When I started along with my generation, you couldn’t start until you were 11 years old so you tended to arrive a bit later. Now they can start at eight, in the case of Max he’s been driving since he was about three or four year old so he’s actually the perfectly bred racing specimen, isn’t he?

“What does he lack? He lacks life experience and the maturity that goes with that. He certainly doesn’t lack real experience, and if I remember correctly Lewis [Hamilton]in his first year of Formula One equalled [Fernando] Alonso who was a two-time world champion. He didn’t lack real experience.

“I think we have to be careful because age isn’t necessarily a good gage of maturity. You get some incredibly mature teenagers and you get some f***wits that are in their 30s. I think it’s more down to individuals, how they are brought up, their DNA, how they view things, a whole number of factors that separate the good from the great.”

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Speaking of great, the conversation quickly moves to the ongoing battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Despite witnessing his Mercedes team-mate win back-to-back world championship, Rosberg holds all the cards heading to Catalunya, having reeled of seven straight grand prix victories stretching back to last season and leading Hamilton by a healthy 43 points – the largest gap Rosberg has held over the three-time champion during their rollercoaster time together.

Hamilton, who clinched his first title in 2008, is bidding to join both Vettel and Alain Prost as four-time world champions – the latter coincidentally joins Coulthard as part of Channel 4’s broadcast of this weekend’s grand prix – and Coulthard believes that if Hamilton can chase down and beat Rosberg to another title, it will put him among the greats of the sport.

“If he can fight back and take this championship battle down to the wire, yes there’s no question,” Coulthard says of the magnitude of Hamilton’s task. “If he can help cement what is already a very impressive line-up of statistics then he’ll go down as one of the greats in Formula One.

“If Nico wins the championship without Lewis actually having the chance to go wheel-to-wheel with him then it won’t change the fact of who gets the silverware, but it will change in history the perception whether it was a great fight or not.

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“I don’t suppose that Nico really cares right now and I don’t think I would particularly mind if my team-mate had some difficulties but I think deep down in every racer you look for the big challenge and you want the fast team-mate and you want to be able to stand beside you on the podium knowing that you beat them in a fair fight, not because you inherited it.

“That’s certainly how I viewed it. I inherited victories that I didn’t feel I truly deserved, but on that day my car was more reliable or there were less technical issues, and there were other days when, very occasionally, I’d have Michael [Schumacher] and Mika [Hakkinen] besides me and they didn’t have any big issues of note, I just managed to get my finger out and deliver on that day.

“We’ll see what happens this season, whether Nico fares well when he is actually duelling it out with Lewis because he haven’t seen that so far this year.”

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All signs point to that battle finally commencing at Catalunya, providing Mercedes can get their act together and produce two reliable cars capable of going the entire weekend without a hiccup along the way. Last season, Rosberg finally got one over Hamilton and beat him in a fair fight, and given that neither driver has excelled in Barcelona having taken a win apiece, it could well prove to be the race that ignites the championship battle.

Channel 4 is the new home of free-to-air Formula 1® in the UK with live coverage of 10 Grand Prix this season and comprehensive highlights of every race weekend. You can watch the Spanish Grand Prix live on Channel 4 from 2pm on 15th May. Visit www.channel4.com/F1 for more information.