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Scuderia Toro Rosso really set the cat amongst the pigeons that are the F1 pundits when they announced that they were signing up a teenage Russian driver Daniil Kvyat to fill in the space that will be left by the departure of Aussie Daniel Ricciardo to Red Bull in 2014.
Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s head for their junior racing programme (He’s better known as Sebastian Vettel‘s mentor) when he sat down with Germany’s Auto Bild magazine termed his decision to bring in ‘The Russian’(his nickname for Kvyat, go figure) as ‘no risk, no fun.’ In that same interview, Marko also stated that he saw the young Kvyat as “a mix between Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen” due to the fact that he has “exceptional speed and is a meticulous worker, but also very quiet and with good nerves.”
So just what is it about this multi-lingual Russian( He knows English, Spanish, Italian in addition to his mother tongue Russian) that has resulted in the curve-ball that is Toro Rosso’s decision to bring him on board.
The fact of the matter is that despite what numerous pundits and teams think, Toro Rosso really may have unearthed a driver who could prove to be a good bet for them in the future. To see this one just has to look at Kvyat’s record in the lower rungs of single-seater motor-sport. He started off with the Red Bull junior team while competing as a guest driver in the Formula BMW Pacific(now the JK Tyre racing) series in 2010.
Joining Red Bull proved to be a blessing for Kvyat as they immediately shifted him to the Formula BMW Europe series with his team EuroInternational where he finished 10th with a podium finish(2nd place) at Monza. That very year he also competed for Koiranen Bros. Motorsport in 2 races in the Formula Renault 2.0 series as well as the Formula Renault UK Winter Series)where he finished 4th with 2 podium finishes.
Pleased with his progress Red Bull made him switch to Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 for the whole season in 2011. He went on to win two races in the series that year but was constantly outperformed by his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr and only managed to come in 3rd. He was also entered into the Formula Renault NEC(Northern European Championship) 2.0 where he again showed signs of his prowess with 13 podium appearances including seven on the top step(he won the last four races on the trot including a hat-trick at Monza). However, he was once again out-paced by his team-mate and finished second. He also participated in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand with Victory Racing that year and eventually ended up finishing third.
In 2012 he was entered into the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps series alongside the EuroCup series. He won the Alps series by 3 points after claiming 7 wins out of the 14 races. He was denied the EuroCup championship victory after his tyres gave way in the final race while he seemed to be heading for a comfortable win.
In 2013 Red Bull threw the biggest challenge in front of him, sending him to both the GP3 series( with MW Arden) as well as the Formula 3 championship(as a guest driver with Carlin). Kvyat though rose to the challenge presented to him, having to race more and handle two different types of tyres.
He also got to test the Toro Rosso car at Silverstone this year during the young drivers test. He picked up a win in the Formula 3 championship out of a total of 7 podiums. In the GP3 series he is currently placed second seven points behind the leader and with two races left at Abu Dhabi he has a good chance to win the championship.
During the young driver’s test the young Russian had stated that he wanted to get into F1 ‘for sure.’ Even with his record he wouldn’t have dreamed that he would get that chance so quickly.
