F1 | Ricciardo: “I think the year off was good for Kvyat”

The person who had the opportunity to know Daniil Kvyat well is certainly Daniel Ricciardo, the Australian driver with whom the Russian shared the Red Bull garage for a season and four races, before the Anglo-Austrian team decided to bring Max Verstappen to the parent company and relegate the number 26 to Toro Rosso.

In his first two years in Formula 1, his debut in 2014 and his first in Red Bull in 2015, Kvyat had undoubtedly demonstrated excellent potential, combined however with a certain amount of inconsistency throughout the championship. Having managed to compete with two talents like Jean Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo is certainly a sign of having a good talent on your hands. The latter expressed his opinion on Kvyat's return to Formula 1 in 2019 at the wheel of Toro Rosso, after a year of forced break in which he had the opportunity to test on the simulator for Ferrari and drive the SF71H at Fiorano in a test organized with Pirelli: “I think that the year of forced break could actually be something good for him. It probably made him understand some things about himself and I think he will appreciate the fact of having had a second chance, I think he will be more mature” – said the Australian -. “I'm not saying he was immature, but I think all this will help him be more calm, so that he will be able to reach his true potential more consistently.”

In 2015 Kvyat had undoubtedly shown some talent, even managing to finish ahead of his teammate in the drivers' standings and taking a nice podium in Hungary. According to Ricciardo, the age factor also influenced the Russian's lack of consistency: “In his good moments, Daniil was really fast. There were some days when I thought he had done an incredible job, but I was never sure if Daniil was aware of how he had done that job, when maybe the next day or a week later he was 8 tenths behind. The talent was there. He was also very young. I think maybe some young riders are able to handle this, but they are exceptions. Normally I don't think that a 20-year-old boy is capable of managing a Formula 1 so simply" Ricciardo then concluded.