Helmut Marko, the advisor of Red Bull Formula 1 team, considers Daniil Kvyat better than Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso. He says, Kvyat is naturally more talented than both of them but he has “lost is speed”.
Red Bull and Toro Rosso dropped the 23-year-old Russian driver from their driver programme before the end of this year
Initially Gasly replaced Kvyat for the the Malaysian and Japanese Grands Prix. But he represented the same team in United States Grand Prix when the team lent the Carlos Sainz Jr to Renault. Sainz was then released back before the start of the Mexican GP.
“Yes, I completely agree. Unfortunately he just showed it in his first year with Toro Rosso and in his first year with Red Bull Racing,” Marko replied to a reporter while answering a question about whether Kvyat was more talented than both Gasly and Hartley.
“After that his performance drastically went down. He had brake and tyre issues, that [Daniel] Ricciardo didn’t have.
“In short, something happened to him mentally. He lost his speed and his ease. We don’t know [what it was].
“We tried many things, but his speed just wouldn’t come back. Unfortunately we have no idea what happened.
“There were also too many accidents at the start of a race, and he didn’t react too well to it either.
“He retreated into his shell and didn’t want anybody to tell him what to do.”
Kvyat won Formula Renault Alps and GP3 titles during his junior career backed by Red Bull. These titles helped him in securing a position in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso in 2014.
He was promoted to Red Bull Racing alongside Ricciardo when Sebastian Vettel shifted to Ferrari in 2015, but was then replaced by Max Verstappen for four races in 2016.
“It’s sad, because I remember GP3 in Monza and Spa where he completely outperformed the competition,” Marko added.
“At Toro Rosso there was also one race where he started from behind and made his way through the field [2014 Italian GP].
“He was attacking [Kimi] Raikkonen when his brakes failed. He had some sensational races.”
Kvyat is likely to secure his position at Williams F1 for 2018, if their deal with Sergey Sirotkin doesn’t hold up.
