Red Bull driver programme boss Dr Helmut Marko said his team are “done” with the Daniil Kvyat topic, suggesting no prospect of a third stint.
The Russian driver was recalled to the Red Bull fold ahead of the 2019 season and placed in the Toro Rosso team alongside Alex Albon. But after two seasons with the outfit now known as AlphaTauri, Kvyat was dropped from the programme completely again with Yuki Tsunoda brought in to replace him at AlphaTauri for 2021.
And Marko said that another return for Kvyat down the line was out of the question, saying Red Bull are “done” with that topic.
“The topic is done for us,” Marko told Motorsport-Total.com.
“In the last two or three races, he showed some speed.”
However, with Kvyat “always behind” former team-mate Pierre Gasly in Marko’s words, the boss felt that “with all the routine and experience he has, that’s too little.”
Kvyat admitted that it was frustrating for him in the early stages of 2020 since the AT01 didn’t work well with his driving style, but ultimately Kvyat got on top of the car and inspired some changes which allowed him to improve his overall performance. Ultimately P4 at Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was Kvyat’s best result and performance of the season.
“When that happens, you get frustrated very quickly,” said Kvyat about his struggle to become comfortable in the AlphaTauri early in the season.
That being said, he didn’t want that to become an excuse, praising the performances that team-mate Gasly delivered on the other side of the garage.
“Of course it would have helped. You always want to start the season well. But I don’t want to talk too much about that because Pierre also drove a fantastic year. We just would have been closer together from the start,” said Kvyat.
“Sometimes he made it into Q3 and I was eliminated in Q2. That’s when I often thought to myself, ‘Sh*t!’ I would have liked to be able to fight with him in Q3.”
But, with Kvyat’s performances following a generally upward curve in the latter stages of the season, he “proved that it worked,” referring to the updates which he pushed for. Kvyat is now of course familiar with the feeling of being ditched by Red Bull, so this time around he made sure that the uncertainty didn’t influence his performances.
“Maybe a few years ago it would have frustrated me a lot more, which would have affected my performance and motivation a lot. But this year, I still stayed cool and worked hard,” he explained.
