Vettel Not Worried About Ferrari Despite Kvyat and Giovinazzi Exits

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel is confident that his team will not be adversely affected by the departures of Antonio Giovinazzi and Daniil Kvyat. The Italian and the Russia moved on from their development roles to get F1 seats elsewhere for the 2019 season.

Giovinazzi was Ferrari’s reserve driver in 2018, while Kvyat took up a simulator role for the Maranello squad. They both played vital roles in developing the car during the 2018 campaign with their feedback and testing.

Now, Giovinazzi will ply his trade at Sauber (though he is still under contract at Ferrari). He will partner F1 veteran and 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn is another driver who has left Ferrari for the 2019 season. Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Italian drove two races for Sauber already back in 2017 when Pascal Wehrlein was unfit to drive. However, he didn’t exactly meet much success.

As for Kvyat, he is on his third stint for Toro Rosso. The Russian was axed from the team in 2017, which prompted his move to Ferrari. Now, though, Toro Rosso have accepted Kvyat back for another chance,.

“Personally, I’m not a fan of the simulator because it’s just not fun,” Vettel told Crash.net about the simulation work Kvyat and Giovinazzi did.

“But you get the point, it is very important, it is an important tool. Based on our findings, we change the car, it is better and we were happier. We’re extremely thankful for the guys, taking in the time because it’s not the nicest job on Friday night, especially when you’re young, but it’s important, it all adds up.

“Everybody plays his part and in the end we have the honour to have the steering wheel in our hands and drive the machine that we all try to create and reach out with performance. For next year, it’s true, we take a step but I think we will find people that fit in very well and very quickly so I’m confident we will have a strong team on that front as well next year.”