Daniil Kvyat

Formula 1 driver

Vital statistics for Daniil Kvyat
Nationality	RUS
Birthplace	Ufa
Born	26 April 1994
Age	29
F1 debut	Australian Grand Prix, 2014
Driver number	26
Current team	Scuderia Toro Rosso

Recent fastest laps
2016	Spanish Grand Prix

Daniil Kvyat made his Formula One debut with the Toro Rosso team in 2014, and his saw him shine as a future talent, hauling more performance out of the car than expected. With Sebastian Vettel's departure from Red Bull, he was given the call to step up to the sister team for 2015. However, after just four races of the 2016 season, and two back to back collisions with Vettel in the Ferrari, Kvyat was demoted to Toro Rosso, swapping seats with Max Verstappen.

F1 biography

Kvyat made his way up the racing hierarchy in the traditional fashion - starting out with a spot of karting in both Russia and Italy. He moved to single seaters, joining Formula BMW Pacific, before moving on to the Europe variant with the Red Bull Junior team.

Daniil moved up to race alongside Carlos Sainz Jr in Formula Renault but was beaten by his teammate during the 2011 season. However, the following year he started to win and took the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps title, finishing second in the Eurocup.

Sticking with the Red Bull team, he moved on again, this time to GP3. Racing with the Mark Webber/Christian Horner outfit of MW Arden, he secured the GP3 title in 2013. On the back of his success, Kvyat was signed to the Toro Rosso F1 team for the 2014 season, replacing the outgoing Daniel Ricciardo.

He outperformed the Toro Rosso car, proving to be a popular and well-respected racer. He regularly appeared in the top ten in qualifying, and finished in the points on five occasions. Although teammate Jean-Éric Vergne finished higher in the championship at the end of the year, Kvyat's flashes of brilliance caught the eye of the Red Bull team, who hired him to join Daniel Ricciardo for 2015 and beyond.

Kvyat made a big impression on the start of the 2016 season. During the Chinese Grand Prix, he made an aggressive overtaking move on Sebastian Vettel that sent the four times world champion into a collision with his Ferrari teammate, and into something of a rage. Both finished on the podium, however, and all may have been forgotten were it not for the next race. In Russia, Kvyat once again tussled with Vettel, but this time crashed into the back of the Ferrari twice on the first lap, in front of his home crowd.

Red Bull were quick to react, forgetting all about the podium the previous outing and instead sanctioning Kvyat almost immediately. The Russian driver was demoted down to the Toro Rosso team for the rest of the season, with Max Verstappen taking his place in a swap situation. Whether precisely down to the incidents with Vettel, or more to do with keeping the talented Verstappen happy remains to be seen, but the switch was deemed harsh by almost all watching on.

Despite being disappointed with the situation, Kvyat kept his head down and continued to work hard, earning himself another season with Toro Rosso in 2017.

Learn more about Daniil Kvyat with the Pocket F1 Handbook.

Filed under Formula 1 drivers

Date	Title
26/10/2017	Race information - Mexico 2017
18/10/2017	Race information - United States 2017
27/09/2017	Race information - Malaysia 2017
13/09/2017	Race information - Singapore 2017
30/08/2017	Race information - Italy 2017
23/08/2017	Race information - Belgium 2017
27/07/2017	Race information - Hungary 2017
13/07/2017	Race information - Britain 2017
05/07/2017	Race information - Austria 2017
22/06/2017	Race information - Azerbaijan 2017

Date	Title
18/09/2017	Sainz shines on a starry night
30/05/2017	Sainz best of the rest once again
15/05/2017	Wehrlein continues his return to form
18/04/2017	Sebastian shows his mettle
27/03/2017	Giovinazzi takes his chance
25/10/2016	Spaniards show their flare in Texas showdown
04/07/2016	Button stars in changeable conditions one last time
03/05/2016	Great Dane-ish performance by K-Mag
04/04/2016	Romain disproves beginners' luck theory
16/11/2015	Hulk back to his old tricks

Related news

Date	Title
04/11/2017	Felipe Massa confirms second retirement from Formula One
07/10/2017	Palmer leaves Renault, making way for Sainz to join the team
26/09/2017	Pierre Gasly to replace Daniil Kvyat in Malaysia
16/07/2017	Hamilton closes the championship gap to 1 point with Silverstone win
09/07/2017	Bottas holds off Vettel for Austrian Grand Prix victory
08/07/2017	Bottas takes pole as Hamilton gets five place penalty
07/07/2017	Hamilton leads the way in both Austrian Friday practice sessions
12/06/2017	Hamilton wins lonely race as Force India teammates disagree
11/06/2017	Hamilton sets fastest lap around Montreal circuit to take pole position
13/05/2017	Hamilton takes pole for Spain with Vettel on the front row

Date	Title
26/11/2014	Signing off
08/09/2014	Double agent
11/03/2014	Here's one I prepared earlier

Mentions during live coverage

Date	Update
22/10/2017	We've got some new and returning faces in the paddock this weekend, with driver movements taking place just a few races before the end of the year. Carlos Sainz has switched to Renault, Jolyon Palmer has left. Daniil Kvyat has returned to Toro Rosso, partnering Brendon Hartley who makes his F1 debut.Gasly, who was previously driving the Toro Rosso, ducked out of this weekend to take part in another series (which was unfortunately cancelled after all that!).
30/07/2017	Daniil Kvyat also picked up a penalty, just three places for him, but for impeding another driver. Kvyat has had a woeful few weeks, so will be hoping to redeem himself today.
16/07/2017	Team radio to Daniil Kvyat: "Keep looking after the car, we have some floor damage."
09/07/2017	Daniil Kvyat has endured another disappointing and difficult race. Sometimes it seems like he's turned the corner and other times you just feel like his career is hanging on by a fingertip.
09/07/2017	We're only ten laps in and are seeing blue flags already - that's due to Daniil Kvyat being so far behind after his early pit stop - and he now takes his drive through penalty as well.
09/07/2017	Daniil Kvyat on the state of the track today: Not too dissimilar compared to yesterday, nothing really outstanding so let’s see what the weather will be doing. It's 50/50 I would say, hard to predict, it will be interesting if it rains but we will see."
25/06/2017	Yellow flags for Daniil Kvyat, whose Toro Rosso is sitting adjacent to the wall, gently smoking.
25/06/2017	Turn 1 incident involving Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz - no investigation necessary.
25/06/2017	Turn 1 incident involving Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz noted.Turn 2 incident involving Kimi Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas noted.
11/06/2017	Very intriguing race from start to finish, really. Disappointing for Max Verstappen and frustrating for Daniil Kvyat. Let's not even talk about Alonso.

Rankings gains and losses

Date	Reason	Points
16/09/2017	Love the Toro Rosso chaps being interviewed by a robot.	+1
20/08/2017	Sharing a sneak peek of the book about his journey to F1.	+1
24/07/2017	Good job winning the latest Toro Rosso cooking challenge, particularly as it's all in a foreign language to him!	+1
10/07/2017	I'm sure they were made to wear this outfit but oof, it's not a good look.	-2
27/06/2017	Mad juggling skillz.	+1
12/06/2017	Having a go at some white water rafting before the Canadian race. Brave but great teamwork!	+1
31/05/2017	Participating in the Monaco football thing.	+1
24/05/2017	Dany obviously very excited about the opportunity for getting dressed up with a sneak peek at his Amber Lounge suit.	+1
23/05/2017	Love the idea of drivers having their own personal secret testing facilities.	+1
09/05/2017	Really enjoyed this kitchen adventure with teammate Sainz, very revealing!	+4