New Delhi, Oct 22 (IANS) Formula 1 team Toro Rosso Tuesday announced that Russian driver Daniil Kvyat will replace Daniel Ricciardo for the 2014 season.
Ricciardo was earlier promoted to Toro Rosso’s senior team, Red Bull, in place of Mark Webber, who will be retiring from the sport at the end of the year.
The 19-year-old Kvyat is a product of the Red Bull Junior Driver Programme and will partner Jean-Eric Vergne. The Rome-based Kvyat has been competing in GP3 and the Formula 3 European Championship.
“Daniil is a very talented driver, which can be seen from his results in all the junior categories. He was a very successful kart driver and in 2012 he took the Formula Renault 2.0 Championship title with seven wins. This year, he competed in six rounds of the European Formula 3 Championship, taking a win, five poles and five podiums,” said Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost.
“In addition, he is still in a position to win the GP3 Championship as he is only seven points behind the leader. He impressed our team with a strong performance and very informative technical feedback at the young driver test in Silverstone. Daniil can be sure that we will use all our experience of training youngsters to give him the best possible start to his F1 1 career.”
The teenage driver was elated at hearing the news, saying that this was a dream come true.
“This is fantastic news, a dream come true and I want to thank Red Bull and Toro Rosso for giving me this priceless opportunity. Ever since I began karting, I wanted to get to F1 and now that wish will become reality next season. I had a brief taste of working with the Toro Rosso team when I drove for them at the Silverstone test and I enjoyed the experience very much,” said Kvyat.
