Toro Rosso

Kvyat 'shocked' when told he was out of Red Bull

Speaking in the Thursday drivers' press conference ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, Daniil Kvyat revealed that he learned he was being moved out of Red Bull during a 20 minute phone call from Dr Helmet Marko and that the call had come as "a bit of a shock for myself" at the time.

"I was in Moscow, I was laying on the sofa watching a TV series," he explained, adding that it was the latest episode of his favourite TV series Game of Thrones - appropriately notorious for its sudden reversals of fortunes and blood letting among its characters.

"Then the phone call comes, we have some news for you," he continued. "I think it was about 20 minutes’ talk, I wanted and I think I deserved to have a lot of explanation. I got to know many interesting details, I must say, but I think I’ll keep it for myself for now.

"There was no real explanation, to be honest," he added when questioned in more detail about why he felt the Red Bull bosses had decided to swap him with Max Verstappen back in Toro Rosso for the rest of the season.

"I feel like I did everything for the team, bringing in the points, doing development work.

"To me, I was working, I was giving my best ever race," he said. "I believe that since China really we picked up a good pace and it was coming, a little bit similar to last year, and it was getting better and better, race to race, qualifying in Sochi was very competitive and the race pace was also getting better.

"I think if the bosses want something to happen they just make it happen. Simple as that," he said. "If you look what happened three weeks ago or whatever I was standing on the podium. And then suddenly there was a few decisions made around."

"The bosses make them and I have nothing other than accept them and do my best job possible now in the team I am with."

Kvyat insisted that he felt he had done everything possible for Red Bull in his time there, and that he regretted nothing about his stint with the team or felt that he was to blame for the latest perceived setback to his Formula One career.

"I think I’ve always been giving my answers on the track and I think nothing will change,” he insisted. "I will try to give as loud answers as possible on 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.