MAY 3, 2016

Red Bull pressure led to Kvyat crash says Alesi

Jean Alesi thinks Red Bull is partly to blame for Daniil Kvyat's first-lap crashes with Sebastian Vettel at Sochi.

But that is not to say former F1 driver Alesi is not also pointing the finger at the young Russian, likening him hitting the Ferrari twice to "an attack".

"Seb was hit, for me, in an incomprehensible way," the Frenchman told Canal Plus broadcaster. "It looks like Kvyat was looking somewhere else, which is impossible."

Alesi, who drove for teams including Ferrari and retired in 2001, said he thinks the ten-second stop and go penalty for Kvyat was not enough.

"If we give ten seconds for an attack, because for me it was an attack, then where is the limit?"

He also points the finger at Red Bull and its notoriously tough driver programme headed by Dr Helmut Marko.

"He (Kvyat) is a nice boy but he is under pressure," said Alesi. "I think it's a bit unhealthy. They have four very good drivers in their cars plus another good driver, in this case French (Pierre Gasly), who is waiting for his turn.

"So everyone is under pressure and I think it creates first laps like that."

(GMM)