Daniil Kvyat has been handed a surprise Formula 1 lifeline by Ferrari after being confirmed as the team’s new development driver. The announcement comes just three months after the Russian was axed by Toro Rosso and rules out the prospect of Kvyat, who has two podiums and 133 points in his 72 career starts, taking the 2018 Williams seat. Ferrari have not yet specified what they expect of Kvyat this season, but he joins Charles Leclerc and Antonio Giovinazzi in the Scuderia’s reserve ranks.
Leclerc, however, now has a full-time seat with Sauber, while Giovinazzi is the Swiss team’s third driver. Kvyat’s fellow Toro Rosso exile, Jean Eric Vergne, was previously a development driver at Ferrari. Kvyat’s new role comes after a rollercoaster season with Toro Rosso. First, Kvyat was benched for Pierre Gasly in Malaysia, before making a one-off return at the United States GP. After that race, he lost his seat and was dropped from the Red Bull stable entirely.
Kvyat had been looking at other options — testing at Euro NASCAR in December — and told Sky F1’s Rachel Brookes in October: “Formula 1 is not everything. There are other good opportunities in this life.” Kvyat joined the Red Bull junior program in 2010 and made his Formula 1 debut in 2014 with Toro Rosso.
At the end of his debut season he was promoted to the senior Red Bull team to replace the Ferrari-bound Sebastian Vettel as Daniel Ricciardo’s teammate. He finished second at the 2015 Hungarian GP, his best result in F1, before claiming another podium with third at the 2016 Chinese GP. But at the next race in Russia, Kvyat twice collided with Vettel on the opening lap and he subsequently lost his seat at Red Bull at the 2016 Spanish GP with Max Verstappen taking his place.
Upon his demotion back to Toro Rosso, Kvyat was heavily out-scored by Carlos Sainz and he was ‘rested’ for the Malaysia and Japanese GPs after crashing in September’s Singapore GP. Kvyat took a point upon returning at the US GP in place of Gasly, on Super Formula duty, and described it as his “best race of the season”. But he was still dropped by Red Bull and Toro Rosso immediately afterwards.
