Russian professional racing driver who currently races for Prema in the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship, Daniil Kvyat, has recalled rejecting an offer from Scuderia Ferrari in 2016, only to discover a few weeks later that Red Bull decided to take away his seat at the main team and send him back to Toro Rosso.
A member of the Red Bull junior driver programme, the Russian was able to complete just one full season with the team before being demoted in 2016. Daniil Kvyat, who was promoted to Red Bull for the 2015 season, started the 2016 F1 campaign with the Austrian side, but after the first four rounds he was replaced by Max Verstappen, as the talented young Dutchman went on to secure his maiden Formula 1 race victory for Red Bull.
Max Verstappen’s F1 career blossomed behind the wheel of the Red Bull car, while Daniil Kvyat’s career went downhill from that moment. After his demotion, he was sent back to Toro Rosso, but the Russian was eventually replaced with Pierre Gasly even before the 2017 Formula 1 campaign had ended. He then joined Scuderia Ferrari, but only in a reserve position for one year before accepting to return to Toro Rosso for two more years, which for now proved to be his final seasons in Formula One.
However, Daniil Kvyat has now confirmed that losing his Red Bull seat was in fact even more painful given the fact that he had the incredible opportunity of joining Scuderia Ferrari, but he decided to not to accept the offer from the Maranello team.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Daniil Kvyat believes Ferrari was looking to replace Kimi Räikkönen and wanted to sign him, but at that moment he made the decision to continue with Red Bull, being able to join Ferrari only as a reserve driver at a later stage, as the Finnish driver had extended his contract with the Maranello team:
“I was performing really well,” he said in an discussion for the Track Limits podcast. “And I just scored another podium for the team [at the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix] and then at the time I had also a proposal to race for Ferrari to replace Kimi. That was going on behind the curtain. So it was a very difficult situation also for me mentally to to go back from being wanted by Ferrari and having seen the contract and then you go back to Toro Rosso suddenly and then you’re like, it’s not going very well suddenly.” – he added.
Daniil Kyvat was just one of many talented drivers developed at the Red Bull academy during the 2010s including the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz. However, while the rest have been able to find seats on the grid, Daniil Kyvat lost his place in Formula 1 and has not been able to find a spot since then.
He final Formula 1 Grand Prix dates back to 2020 for the newly branded AlphaTauri. The next season he moved to Alpine as a reserve driver. Any possible negotiations with other Formula 1 teams were even less likely after the Russian invasion of Ukraine given the fact that the FIA banned drivers from Russia unless they would race under a neutral flag.
Daniil Kvyat joined Prema Racing in the LMP2 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship this year, driving the No. 63 alongside Mirko Bortolotti and Doriane Pin.
