The Red Bull driver who overcame “we’re done here” threat from Helmut Marko

Kvyat is now best-known as the Red Bull driver who was replaced midseason by Max Verstappen, who was the youngest-ever F1 driver and race winner, and is now a three-time champion.

But he overcame a major warning from the notoriously opinionated Red Bull advisor Marko before becoming an F1 driver in the first place.

A teenage Kvyat found himself needing to beat Carlos Sainz during their early days, knowing that failure meant his dream was over.

“That’s where I got Red Bull’s attention,” Kvyat said about the FIA European Championship. 

“I went to Varano in Italy for a test in a Formula BMW. It was with Carlos Sainz and a more experienced driver, Felipe Nasr, so there was a reference for us. 

“Helmut Marko was very happy with the test and said, ‘If this is really your first time then it’s very good’.

“We signed the contract after that when me and my father came to the Grand Prix in Valencia. 

“Helmut said, ‘Look, I appreciate your results, I’ve heard a lot of good things, here’s a contract, read it overnight and come back to me if you want to take it or leave it’. 

“At that point, what do you do? You just accept whatever terms are there, as many years as there are, and you sign it.”

Kvyat and Sainz were teammates in the Formula BMW Europe series in 2010.

But the future Ferrari driver was initially the most impressive of the duo.

“Especially at the beginning it was tough and I got a call from Helmut,” Kvyat admitted. 

“He was like, ‘You know what, if you don’t improve next race, I think we’re done here’.

“So I was like, ‘Wow, OK’. 

“I was under a lot of pressure already. I had to go to Hockenheim and be ahead of Carlos, Helmut told me.

“I said, ‘OK, but please change the car to my liking’, because the set-up was the set-up and we just ran it. 

“We did it and it worked very well, I remember I out-qualified Carlos and was ahead in the races. 

“I think that’s what Helmut really liked about me, because he thought, ‘OK, if I can basically tell him he’s going to be fired and he can do this job, then it’s good’.”

Kvyat and Sainz continued their ascent towards F1 together, including a stint on the support bill GP3 series.

“During the GP3 season, Helmut told us, ‘OK, an F1 seat is on the table, so whoever does best will probably get it’,” Kvyat remembered. 

“And that’s when it started to be very serious. I remember the round in Belgium, where we started first and second, almost tied on points, and I had to get that win. 

“I won it, Carlos had a crash and I got a big lead in the points.

“There was another European F3 championship at the time, with a bit of a different car. 

“Helmut wanted me to also do some races in that series, to do well in both cars, and I started winning there as well. I remember a race at the Red Bull Ring and it was close to Helmut, so he came to say hi, and I did three pole positions out of three, so that was a very important step.

“Then Carlos felt it and he said he’d do the World Series by Renault, just to show Helmut that he could do well in both cars, only that in his case it wasn’t going as well. 

“So, more things were in my favour, I won the GP3 title and I was offered the Toro Rosso contract for 2014 before the last race. It felt like a huge achievement at the time, putting my signature on it.”

Marko, now 80, will reportedly pen a fresh three-year contract to remain a key part of Red Bull’s F1 operation.