F1: Kvyat rues "small but costly" error

Daniil Kvyat said it was a tiny mistake that left Red Bull running an entire Jerez test day without a front wing on its 2015 Formula 1 car on Monday.

The Russian hit the tire wall "extremely softly" between Turns 2 and 3 after a mistake on an out-lap in the morning. That damaged the only 2015 front wing assembly that Red Bull had at the circuit, forcing the team to run without the main plane of its front wing while awaiting further parts from its UK factory.

"These things happen and it happened at the wrong moment, and it hasn't happened to me in a while," said Kvyat. "There were many factors, like cold tires, and I was going very slowly but sometimes it's not enough.

"It almost felt out of my power, to be honest. You don't spin on the out-lap every day. It was one of the smallest incidents I've had but one of the most costly ones."

Kvyat, who has been promoted from Toro Rosso to replace Sebastian Vettel, said he preferred to focus on making amends when he returns to the cockpit on Wednesday rather than castigating himself.

"I have made bigger mistakes than that," Kvyat said. "You have to turn the page and look forward to the last day of testing, when I can make it up to the team and myself."

Red Bull was restricted to 18 laps of running without any flying laps, focusing on what systems checking work was still possible without the wing.

"We had to work with what we had at that point and still do the things we found useful to do, and we've done them," Kvyat said. Asked how the car felt to drive in that condition, he replied: "There was a lot of understeer! There was no point in pushing in the corners; I could still see some things [about the car] but not as much as with the front wing."

{igallery id=510|cid=257|pid=5|type=category|children=0|addlinks=0|tags=|limit=0}

Originally on Autosport.com