Kvyat keen to keep up momentum during off-season

Daniil Kvyat wants to keep up the momentum he gained towards the end of 2016 to ensure a better start to next season.

The Russian was dropped by Red Bull after a difficult start to the year, with a podium in China not enough to prevent him being demoted to Toro Rosso after just four races. Kvyat struggled for a spell but improved after the summer break and ended 2016 by out qualifying highly-rated team-mate Carlos Sainz at four of the final six rounds.

Kvyat says he felt more at home in the car as the year went on and hopes to start next season in the same fashion.

"I have been feeling comfortable in the car, confidence levels have grown through the season, especially after the summer break," Kvyat said. "My engineering crew, we have had good confidence [towards the end of the year] in doing our thing and they are pleased with how everything works. We hope to carry this confidence to next year."

And Kvyat highlights the summer break as a turning point for him as his form picked up from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards.

"I think summer break was very useful for me. After the summer break it started to be much better and Singapore was the turning point.

"After the summer break it was more relaxed, everything was more under control operation wise, I was a lot calmer in my radio communications and everything."

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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.