Spanish GP 2016
It was 2016 when, after just over a single season in Red Bull and with a total of two podiums achieved, the Milton Keynes company decided to abandon Daniel Kvyat from the Spanish Grand Prix, relegating the latter to Toro Rosso. A real exchange between the two teams which at the same time saw the promotion of Max Verstappenwho, still 18 years old, won in his first ever outing with Red Bull.
A choice that marked the Formula 1 career of the Russian driver, who closed with Toro Rosso and the Circus at the end of 2020 after having achieved the satisfaction of the podium in the 2019 German GP. All this while Verstappen has increased his successes, to the point of overthrowing the dominance of Mercedes and winning three world titles.
When the factors do not coincide
Looking back on his Formula 1 career in an interview with formula1.nlKvyat admitted that he still has mixed feelings today: “I will always look at the thing with the awareness of not having achieved the maximum – he admitted – I had the potential to at least fight for the championship as a pilot. Of course, chance plays an important role. In Formula 1, whether or not you win depends on many factors. It always depends on the material you have available, as we have clearly seen recently. In fact, it is often the car that determines who finishes first, fifth or tenth. In other words, even in Formula 1 the stars must be a little favorable so that you end up in the best car as the best driver. Of course, to win you have to do many things well, but what I’m trying to say is that you also have to have one set of circumstances on one’s sideand this hasn’t always happened to me.”
A competitive driver who can therefore express his maximum potential at the wheel of the best single-seater. Two elements which, in Kvyat’s career in F1, have never worked in the former Ferrari and Alpine test driver’s favour: “Like I said, I know my worth as a driver and with a championship-worthy car I would definitely have been a championship contender – underlined the Russian – I don’t like to use big words and say that I would have won easily, because the competition in Formula 1 is fierce and has always been like that. This is how it should be and it is also why we all want to drive in Formula 1. We all love this intense competition. Looking back, I had my chance at Red Bull when the car wasn’t that greatto put it mildly. Of course Max, but before that Sebastian Vettel, had his chance at Red Bull when the car was very strong. The circumstances have to coincide, and they didn’t happen with me“.
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