Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Kvyat still waiting on confirmation of 2016 drive

Daniil Kvyat says he has yet to have confirmation of his seat at Red Bull for next season despite comments from Christian Horner.

Team principal Horner said after the Mexican Grand Prix that Kvyat would be remaining with Red Bull as long as the team was on the grid. However, following Horner's comments that Red Bull has signed a contract for a power unit next year, Kvyat says he still has not had his own future officially sorted.

Asked if he has a contract for 2016, Kvyat replied: "To be honest, from what I heard, probably yes, maybe but I have to have some … At the moment I still have to have some more official confirmation, so we have to wait and see."

And when asked when he is expected confirmation, Kvyat replied: "I have no idea."

Focusing on this weekend's race in Abu Dhabi, the Russian says the fight for third place behind the two Mercedes drivers is wide open at the moment.

While Lewis Hamilton was quickest in FP1 and team-mate Nico Rosberg topped the second practice session, the next five cars were covered by just 0.239s. With Force India, Red Bull and Ferrari all represented in that close battle, Kvyat says it is shaping up to be a competitive weekend for the final spot on the podium.

"From P3 onwards at the moment it looks like quite an open battle but you never know how things will turn out on Saturday. But I am hoping that this P3 will stay as open and as close [as Friday], and we will be able to correct the thing that were not so good, and I will be able to be in the right place."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.