Daniil Kvyat signs for Ferrari

[kals]

Kvyat has signed as a development driver for the 2018 season. It hasn't been confirmed what his responsibilities will be although it's highly likely that he'll conduct simulator work and maybe some testing.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Thinks: Will they fire him mid year to see if Kimi or Sebastian will win? Or would Max continue with the trend. To be honest an appointment I dont understand. Maybe when we understand his responsibilities more it will make some sense. Maybe he is just a simulator bitch. Then if he goes off driving the sim it is at worst a Control Alt Delete fix. Or Ferrari want to flog a few cars to his Russian oligarch mates......

[kals]

Thinks: Will they fire him mid year to see if Kimi or Sebastian will win? Or would Max continue with the trend. To be honest an appointment I dont understand. Maybe when we understand his responsibilities more it will make some sense. Maybe he is just a simulator bitch. Then if he goes off driving the sim it is at worst a Control Alt Delete fix. Or Ferrari want to flog a few cars to his Russian oligarch mates......

Daniil gets fired by Ferrari after continually crashing into Vettel in the simulator and finds himself demoted to Red Bull Racing, taking Verstappen's place who moves to Maranello and wins his very first race for the team.

[Everso Biggyballies]

I guess Danniil is hoping that Ericsson and Raikkonen have a bad prawn and go down with food poisoning one weekend.... with Giovinazzi official reserve for both Sauber and Ferrari they would need to find a driver for the Sauber (presume Gio would get the Ferrari gig?)

[kals]

Is Gio official reserve for Sauber? I thought he was reserve for Haas.

[Everso Biggyballies]

No one is officially nominated at Haas yet.

2018 Formula 1 teams
Team # Drivers

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport
L. Hamilton
V. Bottas
G. Russell

Scuderia Ferrari
S. Vettel
K. Räikkönen
A. Giovinazzi

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
D. Ricciardo
M. Verstappen

Force India F1 Team
S. Pérez
E. Ocon
N. Latifi

Williams Martini Racing
L. Stroll

Scuderia Toro Rosso
P. Gasly
B. Hartley

Renault Sport Formula One Team
N. Hülkenberg
C. Sainz

Haas F1 Team
R. Grosjean
K. Magnussen

McLaren Formula 1 Team
S. Vandoorne
F. Alonso
L. Norris

Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team
M. Ericsson
C. Leclerc
A. Giovinazzi

https://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-line-up/273/

Also this was announced in early December:

Haas rule out unhelpful Antonio Giovinazzi for reserve role in 2018

Haas F1’s Guenther Steiner has confirmed that the American outfit will not run Antonio Giovinazzi as its third driver for 2018.

Giovinazzi tested for Haas throughout 2017 and took part in seven FP1 sessions over the course of the year, as well as standing in for an injured Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber for the Australian and Chinese Grand Prix at the start of the season.

Despite Haas’ connections to Ferrari and the Scuderia requesting the team to run their junior driver in 2018, Steiner was resolute and was clear that Giovinazzi would not be part of the team’s agenda for next season.

“I don’t think it helped us or our drivers,” Steiner told Denmark’s Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

“I cannot say how negative it was, but it was not positive. We will see what we are doing next year, but we have not talked about it yet.”

Giovinazzi was a candidate for a drive with Sauber next season having raced for the team earlier in 2017, however, lost out on the seat to his fellow Ferrari Academy Driver and reigning Formula 2 champion, Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari approached Haas earlier in 2017 hoping for Giovinazzi to secure a race seat in Formula 1. The team, however, rejected the request, re-signing Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen and maintaining its current driver lineup for a second consecutive season.

Currently, Giovinazzi has six practice outings scheduled for 2018 which he will run with Sauber who will be backed by Alfa Romeo next season.

[kals]

Thanks @Everso Biggyballies

[Everso Biggyballies]

Thinking about it the role of test and development driver at Ferrari is a hiding to nothing role. Others to fill the role recently have been Jean-Eric Vergne and Esteban Gutierrez.... both fizzled into nothing F1 career wise, although Gutierrez did briefly run at Haas. Giovinazzi replaced him in the Ferrari role, but the circumstances were different for him with his 'golden boy' status he originally enjoyed. An underwhelming sub role at Sauber has dented his prospects and Leclerc seems to be the heir apparent to the future. Gio is however the only driver with two official team reserve roles as mentioned above.

For Kvyat his circumstances have gone from promising newbie when he progressed to STR and then to RBR... he quickly was rejected by both, so I believe it is not so much a sign of a resurgence to his F1 career as a token nothing role, albeit with Ferrari. Ill be surprised if he gets any or much track mileage in these days of limited testing. He clearly is ineligible for any of the rookie days (he has the same number of GP starts as Jim Clark!)

[Everso Biggyballies]

A Ferrari spokesman has confirmed my beliefs Kvyat is just a simulator 'driver', and is unlikely to be used for any trackwork.

Daniil Kvyat's new job in formula one will see him work mainly in the Ferrari driver simulator.

The famous Italian team has announced that the Russian and Red Bull refugee has been signed up as a development driver.

Asked what Kvyat will be doing in 2018, a Ferrari spokesman told Tass news agency: "The role of development driver is normally associated with work in the simulator.

"Main track activities are covered by our other drivers," he added.

https://gpguide.com/news.aspx?articleid ... 9rZXNtYW4=

[Antonov]

I assume it's around now they do the crash tests, so a good time.

[myownalias]

Has anyone who has fulfilled the Ferrari test role every made an impact in F1? other than a token race drive when there was no other option available? I always thought the Maranello test center is where F1 careers go to die?

[DoubleFart]

Massa?

[Everso Biggyballies]

I was going to say Badoer.

[Ian-S]

Wasn't Mikka Salo a Ferrari test driver?

[erwin greven]

As far as i know he was not the test driver of Ferrari when he substituted for Schumacher.