Daniil Kvyat insists that the shock of his sudden ousting from Red Bull and demotion back down the grid to Toro Rosso is now firmly in the past, and that he's concentrating on using his current position to get better and better where it counts - out on track.
"I don't live in a dream world, I live in reality and I'm just going to be pushing ****ing hard," Kvyat told reporters in Monaco on Thursday when asked how he was coming to terms with the change.
"For sure, it wasn't easy and it took a bit extra space from the brain because it you have to think maybe twice at times to understand, or perhaps you forget something or have to double check, but now everything seems quite normal and is quite comfortable so it's not a problem."
There was a sense that after what had happened, the Russian now felt that he didn't have much more to lose and could finally speak his mind: "I'm not scared of anything at the moment any more. I say what I think and, if someone doesn't like it, it's okay."
As he starts his comeback campaign, Kvyat was certainly impressive in Monaco on free practice on Thursday and finished the day fifth fastest behind only the two Red Bull and Mercedes cars.
"I think the feeling with the car is getting better and better all the time," he said. "We know that the Toro Rosso car is nice and a good sharp car so we expected this kind of track to be good for us and that's confirming itself today.
"I think we had quite a good Thursday and did many laps. I think we ticked most of the boxes today which is very good for the whole team.
"You are trying to find the limit, but we're not quite there yet. It's the same for everyone I guess but the car felt comfortable and the limit, usually you find it in qualifying and hopefully it's going to be the case.
"Everything looks quite okay, quite good, and straight out of the box it was feeling quite and good and comfortable with the car so we hope to maintain, and even improve, this feeling for Saturday because we know there are some areas where we can maximise ourselves, like many other teams.
"Thursdays in Monaco are never ideal so we'll do our homework as well as possible and come back on Saturday in the best shape possible.
"I think we're looking good for qualifying and, looking forward, I'm really hungry to make a good session on Saturday and I think we have potential so we want to make this car shine because it deserves to shine.
Ricciardo over 0.6s clear in error-strewn FP2
Romain Grosjean column: 'I want Jules to always be with us'
Silbermann says ... Easyjet-set
Chris Medland's 2016 Monaco Grand Prix preview
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, Monaco Grand Prix
