Tost: Kvyat has potential to be one of the top F1 drivers

Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost reckons Daniil Kvyat has the potential to become one of the top drivers in F1.

Kvyat made his debut in the sport this season, brought in to replace Daniel Ricciardo and he exceeded expectations with a string of strong performances, including a ninth place finish on his debut in Australia.

In the end the young Russian ended the season with 8 points on the board, securing further points in Malaysia, China, Britain and Belgium and did enough to secure promotion to Red Bull's senior team in 2015, replacing the Ferrari-bound Sebastian Vettel.

"Daniil has done an excellent job being a rookie and has shown in this first year in F1 to be a very fast driver and to have the potential to become one of the top drivers," Tost told the official Toro Rosso website.

"His strong motivation to learn and to achieve, his focus on how to improve his performance during the season, his great talent and his fighter attitude have given him the chance to step up quite quickly and to get the chance to move to RBR next year."

Meanwhile, Tost also praised Jean-Eric Vergne and said it was a tough decision to axe the Frenchman, with Toro Rosso having confirmed rookies Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr for 2015.

"With Jean-Eric, it was a difficult decision to let him go because there is no doubt he is a very talented driver, but our team's remit is to bring on the youngsters in the Red Bull Junior Driver programme and Jev had completed three seasons with us," Tost explained again.

"Our French driver had more than his fair share of bad luck this year [though] and could have finished an impressive fifth in Monaco and he delivered another strong street circuit performance, to come home sixth in Singapore."