I never felt full support from Red Bull - Kvyat

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Daniil Kvyat says he never felt he had the full backing of his bosses at Red Bull during his time with the team.

The Russian driver was replaced after four races of this season, returning to Toro Rosso while Red Bull promoted Max Verstappen. The driver swap came despite Kvyat finishing on the podium at this year's Chinese Grand Prix and he admits his radio message to team principal Christian Horner - "hopefully the first of many more together" - after the race in Shanghai was made knowing his seat could be under threat.

"There was something always going on," Kvyat told F1i during an exclusive interview. "I always felt like I wouldn’t say there was 120% support if you want, which I think it should be like if you want to build a successful team.

"From the top guys it never felt like that so I always tried to make a step closer and of course that radio message was one of those many steps that I always tried to make."

And Kvyat admits he was wary change could happen at Red Bull but was caught out at the timing of his move to Toro Rosso.

"Of course I felt that something was in the air, of course I knew that maybe in the second half of the season there would be many things going on. I wasn’t ready for it to happen so early, it came as a hit. It didn’t feel nice at the time but now to be honest I’ve left it behind quite quickly.

"I come here now with a new old team if you want, trying to take any opportunity that is on the table. As long as you are here there will always be something on the table for you to pick up and then you have to make the best use out of it as possible, also outside the track."

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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.