Daniil Kvyat had a rough time in F1 with the Red Bull family. They not only dropped him to their sister team Toro Rosso [now RB] but also sacked him after a few seasons. The most notable mid-season swap he was part of was in 2016 with Max Verstappen. As the Russian driver was not delivering on expectations, Red Bull decided to demote him to Toro Rosso, while promoting Verstappen ahead of the Spanish GP.
This was a major turning point in Kvyat’s career, as after this, he never got behind the wheel of a top team’s car in F1. Reflecting on the same in an interview with the Formule1 magazine, he said, “With mixed feelings, yes. I will always look at it [his F1 career], knowing that I did not get the maximum out of it.”
5 years ago today, Red Bull shocked the F1 world by announcing ‘the swap’ between Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat…
And of course F1 decided to put them in the press conference together at the very next race. pic.twitter.com/m0sULvo1jV
— WTF1 (@wtf1official) May 5, 2021
The Russian understands that getting the right chance at the right time is important in F1. Post-2014, when Kyvat was at Red Bull, their car wasn’t competing for the championship. So, he believes he did not have the best car to show his race-winning potential.
And when he started to struggle a bit in 2015, the circumstances “didn’t cooperate” with him. Red Bull made the tough call of swapping him with Verstappen and then Kvyat could only drive for Toro Rosso, which later became AlphaTauri (now RB), before heading out of F1 completely in 2020.
Kvyat discussed his championship potential
If it wasn’t for Red Bull‘s lack of competitiveness after 2014, Kvyat could have been in a race-winning car. The Russian stated that he had championship-winning potential and reflected that the lack of a faster car didn’t help him show his potential.
He said, “As I said, I know what I am worth as a driver and in a championship-worthy car I would definitely have been a contender for the championship.” Kvyat didn’t claim that he would’ve won it easily, given the competition in the sport. Still, he looks back at that stint of his career as a missed opportunity on various fronts.
Eventually, Kvyat only got a handful of podiums in F1 and bowed out of the sport as a decent midfield driver. Since then, the Russian has raced in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
