Kvyat: Changes to improve steering feel have boosted form

The Russian struggled to fully feel at ease with his AT01 in the early part of the season, and only scored two points in the first six races.

However, a big push from his team to make changes from the Belgian Grand Prix helped improve the feedback Kvyat got from the steering, and immediately made him much more comfortable.

He has scored several top 10 finishes since, and recently recorded his best finish of the season with fourth place at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Speaking about how his season had panned out, Kvyat praised the way AlphaTauri reacted to his situation, and feels he is finally now able to show what he is capable of delivering.

"When I started the season I wasn't entirely in sync with the car, and I had a not-so-great feeling with the steering wheel," he told Motorsport.com.

"So we had to change a few things on the car around that area for me to gain as much feeling as possible.

"It meant we had to give up some things, and also it meant that we had to learn some features of the car again, because we changed things for me to have a better feeling.

"But from there on, I think things started to go in a lot better way. Of course, we had to understand things again, with the setup and things like that, but I had better feeling in the car. It was more consistent.

"I was able to deliver laps, even in Spa immediately in qualifying. Things went a lot better and I was much happier I would say from that point."

Kvyat did not wish to reveal the exact specifics of what AlphaTauri changed to help him, but said they were many elements that needed looking at to help him.

"It's a bit of everything you know," he said. "I can't go into much detail but there are things that you can do to improve this feeling. For example, it can be the power steering, but there are other things too.

"And we took a bit of gamble in a way. During the season, sometimes it's not a simple thing to change and it can be risky, because if you go even worse than you're really in a bad place. But luckily, things have improved."

Kvyat says that the importance of having a car that a driver feels comfortable in should not be under-estimated in F1, as he says the transformation AlphaTauri has helped him deliver has been welcomed.

"Things have been much closer and more competitive against Pierre [Gasly]," added Kvyat.

"I felt like Pierre was really comfortable in the car since the beginning of the season whereas I wasn't. He was doing an amazing job of course, it takes a lot, but sometimes it is a case that you jump in a car and it immediately suits you.

"Sometimes though you jump in it, and you say, 'okay, this doesn't suit me, so we have some work to do'. That was the case this year.

"But I'm very happy how me, and my side of the guys, reacted and developed it in the end."