“To replace Kimi,” Banned Russian F1 racer shocks fans with Scuderia Ferrari claim
Daniil Kvyat made a bombshell claim about his F1 career that noone knew until now.
Follow Us
Former F1 racer Daniil Kvyat‘s short Formula 1 career spanned from 2014 to 2017, and then he made another brief appearance in the sport between 2019-’20. The Russian is best known for his tenure at Red Bull, where he stepped into the shoes of the departing four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel. As Vettel moved to Ferrari, Kvyat was given the Herculean task of replacing the German at the Milton-Keynes-based outfit in the 2015 F1 season. At that time, his teammate Daniel Ricciardo had already won a race for Red Bull, while Kvyat could only get a second spot at the Hungarian GP as his season’s highest finish.
Because of Daniil Kvyat’s underperformances and an unfortunate collision with Sebastian Vettel‘s Ferrari at the 2016 Russian GP, he was demoted to Red Bull’s sister team Toto Rosso. From then on, the racer from Ufa never saw any mentionable success for the remaining part of his F1 career. But now, he has made a shocking claim that has given a new turn to his story. According to Daniil Kvyat, he had an offer from Ferrari at his table that he had rejected at that time, and thus, the fans never knew anything about it.
Daniil Kvyat is now a known face to many of the F1 fans because he has opted for a career in commentary after leaving Formula 1. He frequently weighs in on the race weekend results as a pundit, and he also made his NASCAR debut last year. But things might have turned out differently for the 28-year-old should he have chosen to go for the Scuderia as he has claimed that he received a job offer from them back in 2016. He said, “…at the time, I also had a proposal to race for Ferrari to replace Kimi [Raikkonen].”
Related: Did Max Verstappen almost join Mercedes?
Daniil Kvyat recalls how his Ferrari offer “suddenly” fell through
In 2015, Daniil Kvyat’s F1 career shot up as soon as he was chosen by the authorities at Red Bull to replace their marquee racer, Sebastian Vettel. To step into the shoes of a four-time World Champion was no easy feat, and Kvyat tried to rise up to the challenge to his best abilities. He scored a few podiums, and proved his mettle, and also attracted attention from some rival teams. That is when, he has now claimed, Ferrari gave him an offer.
Kvyat said on the Track Limits podcast, “I was performing really well I think. I just scored another podium for the team and then at the time had also a proposal to race for Ferrari to replace Kimi [Raikkonen]. And that was going on behind the curtain, so it was a very difficult situation also for me mentally to go back from being wanted by Ferrari, having seen the contract, and then you go back to Toro Rosso suddenly and then you’re like… it’s not going well suddenly.”
If the deal had gone right, Daniil would have had to replace yet another World Champion at Ferrari. But unfortunately for the Russian, he never got to put on the red overalls, and a year later in 2017, he finally lost his F1 seat. In 2019, he made a comeback, but had a short stay in the sport. Now, he is currently busy with Prema for the FIA World Endurace Championship where he has an overall rank of 2 with 27 points to his name.
In case you missed it:
Stay Updated!
Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)