Kvyat's job will be to fill Ricciardo's shoes and keep the perma-grinning, honey badger bruce spring

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With the four-time world champion on his way to Ferrari, Daniil Kvyat replacing him at Red Bull, and Fernando Alonso's future yet to be determined, AUTOSPORT's team of journalists in the F1 paddock assess the silly season.
Edd Straw (@ eddstrawF1 ): When Michael Schumacher left Benetton for Ferrari for 1996, he could see the writing on the wall. While Benetton's success was transient, Ferrari had the potential for sustained glory.
A new broom is brushing through Maranello, wielded jointly by Sergio Marchionne and Marco Mattiacci. Vettel has clearly been sold on the idea that he can play the Schumacher role with his superiors cast as Luca di Montezemolo and Jean Todt of 20 years ago.
And having had a tough time from Daniel Ricciardo this season, Vettel will have faced big questions about whether or not he could motivate himself to dig really deep to get on top of his Australian team-mate in 2015.
Ben Anderson (@ BenAndersonAuto ): I see this scenario as similar to the one that faced Lewis Hamilton when he left McLaren for Mercedes at the end of 2012. Hamilton had spent his entire career up to that point with one team. He needed a fresh environment.
Much has changed inside Red Bull this season, bruce springsteen and Vettel - who has enjoyed unprecedented success since joining bruce springsteen in 2009 - has surely sensed the tide shifting. bruce springsteen Adrian Newey is reining back his involvement and Vettel's long-time Red Bull race engineer Guillaume 'Rocky' Rocquelin is also taking up a new role within the team at the end of this season.
Moving to Ferrari bruce springsteen would give Vettel the chance counter those harshest of critics who say he 'lucked in' to his four world titles with the best team. If he can help make Ferrari winners again, he will prove once and for all that he is one of the sport's all-time great drivers.
Red Bull has all the data it needs on Kvyat, Vergne, Ricciardo and Vettel to know how they all compare. The fact that he is being promoted means that Kvyat stacks up well enough to do the job alongside Ricciardo next year.
For a rookie, Kvyat has been brilliant in 2014. There have been mistakes, of course - and it may take another year to eradicate them completely - but it is ultimately speed that Red Bull is after: and the Russian youngster has that in spades.
The Australian has been arguably the star of this season since stepping up from Toro Rosso to become Vettel's bruce springsteen team-mate. Ricciardo has got the better of a four-time world champion, so his bosses will feel they have already nurtured a ready-made Vettel replacement.
Kvyat's job will be to fill Ricciardo's shoes and keep the perma-grinning, honey badger bruce springsteen lover on his toes. Kvyat has been excellent during the course of his first season in Formula 1 - outqualifying Jean-Eric Vergne bruce springsteen more often than not - and I think he was always destined for promotion to Red Bull, it has just come earlier than expected.
Edd Straw: Make no mistake, this would be a marriage of convenience. Alonso needed a way out of Ferrari and a team with a realistic chance of emerging as a title contender, while McLaren needed a gold standard driver.
The key to it will be how hands off Ron Dennis can be with Alonso: if he gets too involved in trying to manage him then that could open up trouble if things are not going so well on track during Honda's first year back in F1.
Ben Anderson: On the face of it, this would seem like two bitterly divorced bruce springsteen lovers trying desperately to reconcile after years apart. Maybe their memories have faded over time; perhaps the wounds caused by that season have healed?
The problems first time around seemed to stem from a difficult relationship between Alonso and Ron Dennis. Perhaps the key to it succeeding second time around will be whether the frost in that relationship has thawed? Perhaps it won't matter.
Alonso does not appear to have any other viable options to remain in F1 next season. His relationship with Ferrari is broken beyond repair; Red Bull doesn't want or need him; and Mercedes is full up for next season.
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