Daniil Kvyat said he was very keen to be a Red Bull driver in 2019, but the ongoing “games” meant Alex Albon had been selected to upgrade Pierre Gasly.
Kvyat has a complex history when it comes to his association with Red Bull’s Formula 1 programme, going from Toro Rosso to Red Bull to fired, before returning to their junior team and later fired again.
His last stint began in 2019, when he and Albon returned to the Red Bull fold to race with Toro Rosso, midway through that season there was a vacancy in the main team.
Gasly had been promoted to Red Bull’s main team to join Max Verstappen for 2019, but a disappointing half-season saw Gasly demoted to Toro Rosso, paving the way for a driver to take the opposite path.
However, despite his mid-season experience, Albon was selected as Verstappen’s new teammate, rather than the much more experienced former Red Bull driver Kvyat.
“There were a lot of rumours and talking behind the doors about me going back to Red Bull, and I would have really wanted that, of course,” Kvyat reflected in conversation with the Formula 1 website.
“But there was another interest, there were other games happening and they had to put my team-mate Alex Albon in Gasly’s car at the time, that’s how it happened.
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Kvyat continued with Toro Rosso, now Gasly’s partner, for the remainder of the season and in 2020, when the AlphaTauri era began, this proved to be Kvyat’s last season with the team and in Formula 1.
For the following season, Kvyat’s seat was taken by Red Bull junior Yuki Tsunoda, backed by Honda, and Kvyat was no longer a junior F1 driver against him.
“Then after the covid season in 2020, Toro Rosso had to put another engine in the junior team and I’m no longer a junior, it’s as undeniable as that,” he continued.
“I think my functionality in my last few races has been solid, so it was definitely enough to continue in F1, although there are rarely enough seats and some seats are reserved for other reasons.
Kvyat has turned his focus to NASCAR and the World Endurance Championship post-Formula 1, and has signed with Lamborghini for their 2024 LMDh programme as he prepares for his next WEC chapter.
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