Daniil Kvyat expects Red Bull to show a clear improvement during this year's Bahrain Grand Prix compared to last season.
With Renault struggling with both reliability and performance at the start of 2015, the Bahrain Grand Prix - then the fourth race of the season - saw Daniel Ricciardo's encouraging sixth place come despite his power unit failing on the run to the finish line. Kvyat himself finished ninth as he struggled to find form early in his Red Bull career.
With Renault having made a step forward this season, Kvyat - who failed to start the opening race in Melbourne - believes Red Bull should be markedly more competitive than last year.
“I like the weather in Bahrain and the track is good," Kvyat said. "It might look like a simple, modern track but actually it’s very challenging to put a strong lap together. I like that Bahrain is a night race, it gives it some passion! And night racing feels like you are going into space!
“The races in Bahrain are good, there is a long main straight and good overtaking opportunity after Turn 1. Then there is the tow again to Turn 4, so there are good opportunities to race. This is where most of the racing happens in Turn 1, Turn 2, and Turn 4 and maybe Turn 8 as well sometimes.
“To me, this track has been OK, last year there were a few issues, but in the race it was fine. I had an OK race there when I was at STR as well. There is a long straight which was our weakness last year but this year we are looking to find some improvements so it could turn out to be quite a competitive track for us. If we can grab a few good points for both cars, that would be great.”
In 2015, Kvyat finished the race a lap down while team-mate Ricciardo was also over a minute adrift of race winner Lewis Hamilton.
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