Daniil Kvyat

Another product of the Red Bull young driver programme who has got his break with Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat is Russia’s second F1 driver, swiftly following Vitaly Petrov’s lead.

Born in Ufa, Kvyat soon moved to Italy to further his karting career. He shone in karts, finishing third in the KF3 European Championships and second in the WSK International Series in 2009. From there, it was a swift progression up the ranks towards Formula One. 

In 2010 Kvyat moved in to the Formula BMW Pacific series as a guest driver, which meant he was ineligible for points. However, he was soon winning races and attracting the attention of Red Bull, going on to sign as a junior driver and finishing the year with two appearances in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series for Koiranen.

Kvyat then stayed with Koiranen to compete in the Formula Renault UK Winter Series, finishing fourth overall after podiums at Snetterton and Pembrey, as well as one pole position. Following that experience, Kvyat was teamed with fellow Red Bull young driver Carlos Sainz Jr. for a full season of Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 as well as the Northern European Cup. 

The pairing was a strong one in the series but it was Sainz who got the better of both battles, taking the NEC title ahead of Kvyat with 10 wins to the Russian’s seven. In the Eurocup championship, Kvyat had to settle for third behind Sainz and champion Robin Frijns, with retirements in the first and last rounds hurting his chances. 

Kvyat stayed at Formula Renault 2.0 level in 2012, competing in the Alps series instead of the NEC. Seven wins in 14 races in the Alps series including a dominant double at Monza saw Kvyat win the title by three points, while he looked set to follow that with another title in the Eurocup but eighth place in the final race meant he had to settle for the runner-up spot, 10 points behind Stoffel Vandoorne. 

In 2013, Kvyat moved in to GP3 with MW Arden while also competing in Formula 3 for Carlin. The GP3 campaign got off to a slow start, but after a run of consistent points Kvyat finally scored his first podium at the ninth round in Hungary. The first victory soon came in the feature race at Spa, and suddenly an opportunity for a race seat at Toro Rosso seemed a possibility with Daniel Ricciardo getting the
nod to replace Mark Webber at Red Bull. 

Although appearing to be an outsider, Kvyat was told to keep delivering results and duly obliged with another win in the feature race at Monza and second place in the sprint race. That left him as the title favourite heading to Abu Dhabi and he would arrive there as a Toro Rosso driver having secured the drive ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa and Sainz having shown more consistency than both. At the Yas Marina Circuit, Kvyat wrapped up the GP3 championship with pole, fastest lap and a feature race win.

The rookie may have spent 2014 largely under the radar at Toro Rosso but the Russian made a solid start to his F1 career by becoming the youngest-ever points scorer in F1 history with a ninth position in Australia. Four further points paying finishes in Malaysia, China, Great Britain and Belgium respectively saw him finish 15^th in the championship.

With four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel switching from Red Bull to Ferrari for 2015, the young Russian driver was promoted into the Red Bull team to partner Daniel Ricciardo.

The jump from Toro Rosso to one of the top teams in F1 will put serious pressure on Kvyat to perform much stronger in 2015 despite only having one year in F1 under his belt.

Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull debut came to a quick end when before the race in Australia, his car broke down whilst on his way to the grid. His first race start with the team came in Malaysia and ended it with a ninth place finish, having both Red Bull cars suffering brake issues over the course of the race.

An impressive drive at the Monaco Grand Prix saw him grab fourth place in the race, having been let through by teammate Daniel Ricciardo who failed to challenge for a podium place.

It wasn't until the Hungarian Grand Prix where Kvyat's effort were rewarded. The Russian stay cleared from any of the track incidents that occurred but over exceeding track limits resulted in a ten second penalty. Following the collision with Ricciardo and Rosberg, Kvyat soon found himself in second place and remained there to clinch his first F1 podium. This was the first time a Russian stood on the podium since the 2011 Australian Grand Prix where Vitaly Petrov finished third in the Lotus Renault.

Kvyat's podium gave himself motivation and continued his point scoring with a gripping drive at the Belgian Grand Prix, finishing fourth after making multiple overtakes throughout the race. Another impressive result in Singapore came with a sixth place result, with teammate Ricciardo finishing on the podium.

The Russian was involved in a heavy crash during qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, hitting the barrier hard causing the car to flip. He escaped the incident uninjured but compromised his weekend as the whole car was damaged. He ended the race down in 13th place.

He enjoyed his home race with a fifth place result ahead of his teammate and even challenged for the lead of the race in the mixed conditions in the United States. A crash during the race prevented him for challenging any further in the race. A positive end of the season saw fourth place in Mexico, seventh in Brazil and 10th in Abu Dhabi. He ended his first year at Red Bull seventh in the Drivers' championship ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo by three points.

The 2016 season saw another repeat of 2015 where he failed to start in Australia due to an electrical issue. Despite a bad qualifying under the “elimination” format in fifteenth in Bahrain, Kvyat climbed his way through the field to finish in seventh place, picking up his first points of the season.

Kvyat found himself returning to the podium after an excellent drive to finish third however, he was involved with an opening lap incident with the Ferrari's, after they collided due to Vettel avoiding the charging Red Bull from the inside of the corner. Vettel was angered by the Russian's move, earning himself the nickname “the Torpedo”.

His actions repeated in front of his home fans in Russia with another collision with Vettel on the opening lap. This time not only affecting both Kvyat and Vettel's race, but teammate Ricciardo was involved too, suffering front wing damage. The run into Turn 3 saw Kvyat collide into Vettel again, putting him out of the race for good. The accidents cost Red Bull valuable points with both cars finishing outside of the top ten. This turned out to be the last straw for Kvyat.

In the week leading up to the Spanish Grand Prix, it was announced that Red Bull were to demote Kvyat back down to Toro Rosso and take on Max Verstappen in for the rest of the season. The move was made in a bid to help Kvyat “relieve some pressure” and to continue his development.

In his first race back at the Italian team in Spain, Kvyat managed to qualify in 11th place and ended the race in tenth and secured the fastest lap. But Verstappen, his replacement at Red Bull, went on to secure his first win in F1 in his first outing with the team.

Results were hard to collect as he still felt the aftermath effect of his demotion, which raised questions over his future with the team. He scored two more times over the course of the 2016 season with tenth at Silverstone and ninth at Singapore. He was confirmed to race with Toro Rosso for the 2017 season alongside Carlos Sainz Jr. He ended the championship year 14th overall and only scoring 25 points, just four of them were with Toro Rosso.

Despite a promising start with a ninth place finished at the opening round in Australia and in Spain, multiple issues and driver errors occurred throughout the season with the Russian. He was subject of a Turn 1 crash in Austria that destroyed Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen's race. The following weekend at Silverstone, he collided with teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. on the opening lap causing both cars to retire. His future was within the sport was in doubt.

After narrowly missing out on point finishes in Belgium and Italy, as well as retiring in Singapore, Toro Rosso dropped Kvyat in Malaysia and Japan in favour for Pierre Gasly. This wasn't the last Kvyat’s F1 action as he returned with the team in United States in place for Carlos Sainz Jr., who left the team to join Renault. Kvyat clinched the team's last points of the year with a ninth place finish but the result wasn't enough to save his F1 career as the following race, Brendon Hartley and Gasly would be the team's line up for the rest of the year. On the 25th October, he was officially out of the Red Bull driver development program.

Kvyat was in contention for a seat at Williams for the 2018 season, but talks failed and instead the seat went to fellow Russian Sergey Sirotkin, leaving him to take up a simulator role at Ferrari instead.

Things turned around quickly for Kvyat. As Toro Rosso searched for drivers for 2019, he returned to its shortlist before being signed as part of an all-new line-up alongside Alexander Albon. Kvyat returned to F1 with greater maturity and composure than he showed through his previous stint, seen most clearly in his remarkable drive to third place at the German Grand Prix. It marked just the second podium finish in Toro Rosso's history, sparking wild celebrations for the team.

But it was not enough to secure Kvyat a second stint at Red Bull as the team opted to promote Alexander Albon mid-season, leaving Kvyat to remain at Toro Rosso for 2020.