Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, Yas Marina, 2018

Kvyat deserves F1 return after “too early” Red Bull promotion – Tost

2019 F1 season

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Daniil Kvyat deserves another chance to impress in Formula 1 after being dropped by Toro Rosso in 2017, says team principal Franz Tost.

The team launched its new car for the 2019 F1 season today. Kvyat has returned to the team he made his debut for five years ago.

Kvyat was promoted to Red Bull after a single season at Toro Rosso, but returned to the junior team four races in 2016. He was then dropped by the team late in 2017.

Tost said Kvyat’s speed was never in doubt but admitted he had been promoted to Red Bull too quickly.

“I always say that a young driver needs two to three years to understand and deliver in the complicated world of F1,” said Tost, “but Daniil showed his natural speed from the very beginning.

“When the contingency required his move to Red Bull Racing, it seemed that he could be ready for the challenge. He showed some very good performances but to perform under pressure is always a challenge, now we can say with hindsight it was just too early.

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Toro Rosso STR14, 2019
First pictures: Toro Rosso STR14 is ready for 2019
“He had to live through a difficult time when he joined us again in 2016 – it was psychologically tough, but no one has ever doubted his driving skills. I strongly believe he deserves another chance in Formula 1 and I feel the best is yet to come from his side.”

Tost expects Kvyat to help support his new team mate, Alexander Albon, who is making his F1 debut this year.

“Alex will have a lot to learn, like any newcomer in Formula 1, but he certainly proved himself in the lower categories like European Formula 3, GP3 and especially in Formula 2, where he was able to win races. In the second half of last year’s F2 championship, he impressed with a lot of overtaking manoeuvres and that’s what convinced us he is the right driver to get on board.

“With Daniil on the other side of the garage, he has an F1 experienced driver with whom he will be learning a lot from, along with the support of the team around him. Scuderia Toro Rosso is very much looking forward to 2019, as with Daniil and Alex we have two young and competitive drivers.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “Kvyat deserves F1 return after “too early” Red Bull promotion – Tost”

  1. Yes, but I just wish it was with a non-Red Bull related team instead.

  2. Embarrassing – when you have fire him a year ago and now have to justify his rehiring

    1. @muralibhats: Yes, but F1 has a shorter memory and faster rationalizations than its fans.

  3. https://www.motorsportweek.com/news/id/16199

    So, Marco says Kvyat “will not return again”

    Tost presumably thought the same at the time.

    Now, “Kvyat deserves F1 return after “too early” Red Bull promotion – Tost””

    Well who got him into this mess. Kvyat has a reasonable first season. He was moved up too early and considering this, had a pretty good 2nd season. His 3rd season started badly. Had too much pressure on him and they kicked him out. Then he got kept for the following season. Admittedly, it wasn’t a good one, but I really do blame Red Bull for the way they treated him. They moved him up too early and moved him about too much. They have sort of ruined his chances. Now he’s had some time out and they are impressed enough to get him back, there must be something they saw in him. We should forget his past and think of him as a new driver. I think he could be better than many think.

    1. Jonathan Parkin
      12th February 2019, 7:36

      I still believe though if it wasn’t Sebastian Vettel he ran into he wouldn’t have been demoted to Toro Rosso. Another driver he might have survived (he had a podium finish already that season). But because it was Vettel the favoured son in Red Bull even though he drove for Ferrari he got the demotion

    2. I really believe Kvyat will shine this time around. I felt he was too young when he started and struggled with the whole deal even if the talent came out on occasion. After being schooled by the years and the humiliation of the Verstappen swap, I bet he can see the woods for the trees now and eager to rack up the points, not panicking already in Q1 like before.

    3. I always liked Kvyat as a driver and a personality. Totally mismanagement of youthful potential from Red Bull, as far as I see it. I would go as far as to say Red Bull’s management of talent has been disgusting but who knows how it really was behind closed doors. I am very pleased that he is getting another chance and I am hopeful that he has grown a thicker skin because I don’t imagine things are going to be any different this time around in regard to the behavioural characteristics of his employers.

  4. Imagine being in Tost position, waking up one day and getting a call from Marko telling you that the guy the team demoted and then fired (and insisted he was not going to return, even going as far as saying “the team do not believe he can make a turnaround in the long term”) will come back after all. And it’s up to you to come up with reasons why…

    BS about pressure too, F1 drivers are always under a lot of pressure. If they cannot handle it, they are not going to succed. I maintain they should’ve hired/promoted someone else… the fact that they had no one to go for it’s their own fault, Kvyat shouldn’t have been an option in the first place.

    Best of luck to him anyway, but he’ll be gone again after one year, Red Bull will find someone else… Which defeats the purpose of having a whole team to promote and develop young drivers.

  5. I’m bias, but they should’ve kept Hartley as a yardstick. He wasn’t super-fast, but he was measurable and (only just) made fewer mistakes than Kvyat.

  6. All this to avoid telling the truth: they ran out of drivers.

  7. TR should be looking for promissing F2 drivers as their source seems to have dried up.
    What happened sure was though for Kvyat, but he had another full season to show his hability and he was again very bad.

    Even his season at Red Bull wasnt that good. Ricciardo’s poor reliability made it looks better than it actually was.

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