5 Times F1 Drivers Swapped Seats With Each Other

Schumacher pulled some excellent wins out of the bag despite his poor Ferrari in 1996.
Schumacher pulled some excellent wins out of the bag despite his poor Ferrari in 1996.

#5 Daniil Kvyat and Max Verstappen, 2016

Verstappen and Kvyat went in opposite directions in the RBR family back in 2016.
Verstappen and Kvyat went in opposite directions in the RBR family back in 2016.

Daniil Kvyat is returning to Formula 1 to drive for the Toro Rosso team next year, but he had been kicked out of the sport towards the next of 2017, thanks in part to being forced to swap seats with Max Verstappen. Kvyat had risen through the Red Bull ranks rapidly and had been driving for the Milton Keynes outfit for just over a year before he took out Sebastian Vettel twice in two races and found himself demoted to Toro Rosso for the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

This seemed to be a bad stroke of luck for the Russian, but it got even worse, as Verstappen went on to win the race in Barcelona and become the youngest ever Grand Prix victor in Kvyat's old car.

It's a stretch to say that Daniil would've won had he still been with Red Bull, but it must've been a kick in the teeth. From there, the pair went down contrasting paths, Verstappen going on to win 4 more races and be generally regarded as one of the fastest drivers on the grid, while Kvyat was sacked from Toro Rosso before the end of the 2017 season.

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