SOCHI, October 9. /TASS/. Breaking all Soviet-era foreign stereotypes about ‘win or die’ Russia’s promising Formula One racer Daniil Kvyat said he would just focus on piloting either for a spot on the podium of his home inaugural Sochi GP or places lower as it did not matter since he and all F1 pilots were saddened from last weekend’s tragic crash in Japan.
Last weekend’s rain-affected F1 race in Japan was concluded earlier by the decision of FIA officials after French pilot Jules Bianchi, 25, from Marussia team crashed into the back of a tractor, which was clearing debris in a run-off area from a previous incident. The French pilot was seriously injured and, while unconscious, taken to a hospital in Japan.
“All I wish now that I could hear good, better, positive news about Jules,” Kvyat said. “We are all here to support him.”
Bianchi remains in a hospital in Japan, he is in coma and his doctors refrain from making public announcements about his condition, but, according to earlier media reports, the young French racer is in critical condition.
The 20-year-old Russian racer of the world’s most prestigious racing event, which is often referred to as the ‘Royal Racing,’ said he would still have to test personally speed characteristics of the track but he was already impressed with the circuit.
“On the other side it’s my home Grand Prix and I am pleased with what I see here, big structures and big track. And I think ten around years round ago starting my career I have not dreamt about it.”
Earlier on Thursday, F1 famed Scottish racer David Coulthard together with Kvyat went on a bicycle spin of the new track in Russia’s resort city of Sochi and the weather was more than welcoming, while they went on their gasoline-free vehicles tour.
Coulthard is very familiar with the situation when people expect more than they, their favorites, could do and in regard to Kvyat he said that the Russian pilot has an outstandingly future in the coming racing seasons.
Coulthard also said he heard nothing about Kvyat until recently, but when he saw him in action burning the tires of F1 international speed circuits the Scottish racer realized that the Russian pilot had many talents in hand.
An idea of holding one of the F1 GPs in Russia and formerly in the Soviet Union had been surfacing for over three decades.
The Russian Grand Prix is held at the racing track located near the Olympic Village in the coastal area of Sochi. The contract to include Russia in the calendar of F1 racing for the 2014-2020 period was signed in 2010 in Sochi by then-Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin and F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.
A total of some 50,000 tickets available were sold out for the Russian F1 event in Sochi with 5,000 tickets out of the mentioned-above figure purchased by foreign guests.
F1 supremo Ecclestone, who arrived in Sochi on Wednesday night, said that Russian President Putin had been “completely supportive” to make the F1 racing come to Russia as the F1 chief executive had been trying to make it happen since late 1970s.
“I was trying to do something in the early 80s or late 70s actually. It just taken a bit longer than we thought,” Ecclestone told TASS on Thursday.