Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat speaks exclusively to F1i about his promotion from Toro Rosso, the challenges ahead at his new team and how keen he is to finally start his first race in the RB11
Going back to last year, how did the timeline of the year move on from joining Toro Rosso to Red Bull telling you there was a chance of a promotion?
I had been given a Toro Rosso contract during the summer break, so that had been all agreed so far. So I thought ‘That’s it, the plans are defined’. But I kept pushing anyway, I always thought there might be something happening, I was believing. I kept on believing and even though I had a contract I kept on pushing hard just to prove myself to the people.
Then in October the news came in Japan and I had been told the news. Until then it was like a young boy’s hope, which actually came true. It was interesting!
Japan must have happened really quickly…
It happened just suddenly, out of nowhere. One morning I arrived there and I was told by Franz [Tost] to go to the Red Bull Racing office where Helmut [Marko] and Christian [Horner] told me the news basically. It was a strange day. I was very happy but also quite a weird feeling.
Everyone talks about the sister teams, but how much do you feel part of the Red Bull family when you're at Toro Rosso?
It’s different. It is a different team, for me I have my engineers group which was working there at Toro Rosso with me and once I leave Toro Rosso I have completely different people around me with who I am working closely. So obviously the world is changing quite a lot.
I spent the winter with Red Bull which was a bit unusual for me because to be honest I didn’t do anything other than simulator sessions, no real testing. Of course it’s just about trying to get to know the team as good as you would like to. With limited mileage here and there, we had quite a good winter testing to get to know each other well with my engineer but we are missing a good race weekend. Obviously we are only one behind but we are working hard to get one in the racing bank account let’s say to start with. You always have to have this fundamental baseline to get working in a kind of flow.
So in a sense how underprepared do you feel in the team right now?
Underprepared would be the wrong word. I mean, we are on the back foot right now, it’s obvious. We are not hiding it that we are facing issues. But what is good is that I’m personally very motivated right now, so this makes me work very hard for it. I think doing so also shows to the team that they should do the same thing an this is what is happening in the team right now.
There are a few problems which are exaggerated by the media and I think everyone in the team knows about the prospective hard work ahead. I understand after four consecutive world championships it’s not easy to be where we are right now, but the good thing is that I’m used to working hard and used to coming out of not easy situations. I am going to do absolutely everything to get ourselves on the up.
Do you think people underestimate how big a step it is to go from Toro Rosso to Red Bull?
My best qualifying last year was P5 and my qualifying result in Melbourne was P13, but I think it’s a bit early to talk about these things. For me I think they get a bit more unnoticed than by the media. I just keep doing my work and until I’m not on top I’m not happy. I’m going to do everything to get there now and I think it’s a fair approach because P13 is not where we belong. Not starting the race is not where we belong. We have very hard work ahead of us but everyone in the team is motivated, everyone in the team is willing to work hard for a result and this is what I like to see.
Where do you think Red Bull belongs this year with this car? When you look at the other teams now, have you had to change your expectations about what can be achieved this season?
We started where we started and we were not happy with where we were in Melbourne. Now everything that we can do to keep improving constantly would be a good step to follow.
Is just trying to get to the group of Ferrari and Williams the realistic aim for this year now?
You always have to aim really high, as high as possible. From my side I will always keep pushing, not only until we’re at the top but also when we’re there you also have to be working hard because everyone is working hard. Let’s say it would be a lot better to already be in that group, but we obviously want more than that.
How desperate are you to sit on the grid tomorrow and finally start a race for Red Bull?
Personally, for me, the season starts here.
