The brutal side of F1 that's not unsettling Kvyat

Formula 1 can be a brutal business at times, especially if you are a driver. Job security is not one of the big perks of getting to blast grand prix cars around race tracks every other Sunday. You're either winning or worried, and sometimes even both.

If drivers are not having to look over their shoulders at the next young hotshot ready to push them out, or the threat of the big bucks sponsor willing to pay for their replacement to come in, then they are also having to fight against circumstance that is stopping them showing off their best efforts.

Just as some are lucky enough to get themselves into the right car at the right time, so too on the flipside are those drivers who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. It can be through an unforeseen lack of competitiveness - think of Fernando Alonso in the early McLaren-Honda years. Or it can be through a car that either does not suit their driving style or is simply difficult to drive - think Alex Albon's difficulties with the tricky Red Bull RB16 this season.

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With tenths of a second the difference between being a hero or a struggler, any factor working against you needs to be ironed out if you are going to escape being thrown onto the scrap heap at the end of the year. But there is a truism for any driver who finds themselves in circumstances where things just aren't falling their way and the bosses appear to favour for another option: there is absolutely zero to gain in complaining about your lot and simply giving up because it's not working for you.

F1's relentlessness means nobody is going to stop what they are doing and listen to a sob story about why you deserve another chance when you can't show it on track. The only thing that you can do is get out there, produce the speed you have and then everything else will take care of itself.

It is an aspect of the uncertain life of an F1 driver that Daniil Kvyat knows only too well.

With current paddock speculation pointing to Red Bull chiefs wanting his spot at AlphaTauri taken by Formula 2 frontrunner Yuki Tsunoda, the Russian could be forgiven for feeling circumstance has gone against him, and that there is little he can now do to change his situation.

Kvyat knows that F1 is a series where perceptions can change almost in the blink of an eye. Sure, one good result out of the blue - especially if it's lucky - is not going to change the world, but it doesn't take much to swing the pendulum back in your favour

But his experience from three years ago shows why only doing the very best and seizing any chance that comes his way is the right approach to have. Dropped at the end of 2017 by Toro Rosso, he took on a role as simulator and third driver at Ferrari.

And it was the job he did there, allied to Red Bull's lack of talented youngsters coming through, that earned him his second chance in F1. So that's why the current uncertainty about his future is like water off a duck's back to him. He's already been through it once and come back...

It's also why, when he felt the current AlphaTauri car didn't suit his driving style so well at the start of the season, especially when it came to the feel he got from the steering wheel, that he set about working with the team to sort it out without fanfare and then produce a step forward on track.

Not once was it ever voiced as an excuse for why he had difficulty delivering what team-mate Pierre Gasly was able to do from the off.

Kvyat knows that F1 is a series where perceptions can change almost in the blink of an eye. Sure, one good result out of the blue - especially if it's lucky - is not going to change the world (one swallow doesn't make a summer after all), but it doesn't take much to swing the pendulum back in your favour.

Just look at how the views of the two Racing Point drivers have swung this season. Five races ago, as we left Monza, Lance Stroll looked to have things firmly under control there, as he delivered his first podium of the season and led team-mate Sergio Perez by 23 points in the standings.

Racing Point's decision therefore to hand Stroll its latest update package for the next race in Mugello, plus execute a break clause in Perez's contract so the Mexican could be replaced by Sebastian Vettel in 2021, didn't seem to be too outlandish.

But an unexpected puncture for Stroll with big consequences in Mugello, a clash with Charles Leclerc in Russia, plus coronavirus in Germany, all served to derail the Canadian's campaign. He hasn't scored since, and it's Perez who, as he fights for his own F1 future, has knuckled down and performed brilliantly to now lead his team-mate by 25 points in the standings.

Back in September, a lot of people would probably have laughed if you had suggested that Perez could be in the running for a seat at Red Bull in 2021. Now, though, he is vying for that place alongside Nico Hulkenberg if Albon cannot turn his own situation around.

In fact, no driver has proven how quickly views can change completely in F1 than Hulkenberg. Twelve months ago, after that heart-breaking skip across the wet run-off area at Hockenheim served to seal his fate at Renault, few would have imagined that he would ever get his chance in F1 again.

Yet the unprecedented 'super sub' scenario thrown up by coronavirus, allied to both Perez and Stroll getting struck down on separate occasions, gave the German a second chance that he seized with both hands.

Fans were delighted by him making his comeback (made all the more dramatic by those last-minute COVID negative tests he needed to get access to the paddock) and he suddenly had a buzz around him. He too now is in the Red Bull frame.

PLUS: Why Hulkenberg's Red Bull chance is out of his hands

Hulkenberg and Perez's hero-or-zero opportunities (for they could end up on the F1 scrap heap or in the best car on the grid) are all the proof that any driver needs that you never know where or when your chance is going to come. Rejection at one point in time can actually help open the door for something better further down the line.

It's the crazy way that careers can change, and perceptions be turned around, that has left Kvyat unruffled by the silly season gossip surrounding him. The examples of Perez and Hulkenberg are all the proof he needs of why focusing on the job of here and now is the only thing that matters.

"In these times, this era of pandemic, you never know what can happen," he said after his strong fourth place at Imola. "It's always important to be ready. And you want the teams to have a good memory about you. You need to keep pushing always.

"In the past, maybe these things will affect me a lot. Now, honestly, I am unaffected. So every race weekend I deliver my best job I can" Daniil Kvyat

"I do it regardless, but more so this year. Even with all these rumours surrounding my future, I still come every time to the race weekend and the team knows I will deliver.

"Maybe somebody would be very affected by this, but I'm not. I improved a lot on this, compared to the past. In the past, maybe these things will affect me a lot. Now, honestly, I am unaffected. So every race weekend I deliver my best job I can."

Keeping his head up, keeping his eye in and simply getting out there and delivering to his best is the only right thing to do. It's what he showed at Imola.

And, while doing all of that may not save his seat for 2021, it could just be the exact thing that opens up a fresh new opportunity just around the corner.