Daniil Kvyat

Daniil Kvyat

Kvyat in 2011.
Born	(1994-04-26) 26 April 1994 Ufa (Russia)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Russian
2014 team	Toro Rosso
2014 car #	26
Races	0 (0 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2014 Australian Grand Prix

Daniil Vyacheslavovich Kvyat (Russian: Дании́л Вячесла́вович Квят, IPA: [dɐnʲiˈil vʲɪtɕɪˈslavəvʲɪtɕ kvʲat], born 26 April 1994 in Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia) is a Russian auto racing driver. He was runner-up at the 2012 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, and the reigning GP3 Series champion. He will make his Formula One debut in 2014, racing for Scuderia Toro Rosso.^[1]

Career

Karting (2009)

Kvyat has been an active kart racer in Russia and Italy. In 2009, he finished third in the KF3 European Championship category and runner-up in the WSK International Series.

Formula BMW (2010)

Kvyat during Race 1 of the 2010 Formula BMW Pacific season at Sepang International Circuit.

Kvyat started his formula racing career in the 2010 Formula BMW Pacific season with EuroInternational at Sepang International Circuit. In his first race he started from sixth place, but finished only nineteenth.^[2] He finished fifth in the second race. During the season, he joined the Red Bull Junior Team and made his debut in Formula BMW Europe with the same team.^[3] He finished on tenth position with second place at Monza.

Toyota Racing Series (2011)

Kvyat contested New Zealand's Toyota Racing Series in January and February 2011 with Victory Motor Racing, finishing fifth in the championship with a win in the Dan Higgins Trophy at Manfield and another five podiums.^[4]

Formula Renault (2010–2012)

After two races with Koiranen Bros. Motorsport in 2010 in Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 finale at Barcelona and fourth place in Formula Renault UK Winter Series, Kvyat joined this team with his Formula BMW and Red Bull Junior teammate Carlos Sainz, Jr. for full 2011 seasons in both Eurocup and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup. He finished as runner-up behind Sainz, Jr. in Northern European Cup standings with 7 wins (including hat-trick at Monza). In Eurocup he was outpaced by former Formula BMW rival Robin Frijns and Sainz, Jr, scoring two wins at Spa and Nürburgring.

For the next year Kvyat remained in Formula Renault category, competing in both Formula Renault 2.0 Alps and Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series. His debut in Alpine series was marked with dominating double win at Monza.^[5] In May he returned to the Eurocup, and recorded a double win in the opening round of the season at Alcañiz.^[6] He finally clinched the Alpine title and finished as runner-up in Eurocup, following a dramatic season finale at Catalunya, when he was leading the race under a heavy rain but had his tyres lost all grip during final laps. Kvyat missed the title by 10 points, but remained with Red Bull Junior Team and progressed to the GP3 Series.

GP3 and European Formula 3 (2013)

Kvyat has spent 2013 competing in the GP3 Series with MW Arden and the European Formula 3 championship with Carlin Motorsport. Kvyat was a late registration for the latter series, and so he was ineligible for points. He scored five pole positions, seven podiums and a dominant win at Zandvoort. His first win saw an unusual mistake on the part of event organisers: there was no record of National Anthem of Russia present at Zandvoort, and "The Patriotic Song" by Mikhail Glinka was played instead to celebrate the Russian's win.^[7]

His progress in GP3 was rapid as well. Kvyat started the season poorly but immediately recovered, scoring his first podium in his fifth feature race. Following two wins in next two feature races, he went into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix being a title contender and finally won the championship in his debut year. His performance in two final feature races at Monza and Yas Marina was noticeable: Kvyat scored a pole, a win, led every lap and recorded the fastest lap, gaining the maximum points available at both races.

Formula One

Toro Rosso (2014)

In October 2013, Kyvat was announced as the second driver of the Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula One team for the 2014 season, alongside Frenchman Jean-Éric Vergne.^[1] Kvyat will take the seat vacated by Daniel Ricciardo, following the latter's promotion to parent team Red Bull Racing.^[8] According to Toro Rosso principal Franz Tost, the team also considered António Félix da Costa and Carlos Sainz, Jr., for the seat, but Kvyat impressed them with a strong performance, was more consistent than Félix da Costa through 2013, and had better results in GP3 than Sainz.^[9]

Personal life

Kvyat currently lives with family at Rome, Italy. He is fluent in four languages: English, Spanish, Italian, Russian.^[10]

Rules introduced for the 2014 Formula One season allowed the drivers to pick their own racing numbers that they will carry with them for the rest of their careers. When asked about which number he wanted, Kvyat revealed that 26 was the number he had chosen as he had no previous connection to it, and that he wanted to make it successful.^[11]

Kvyat's hobbies include football and skiing. He supports the Russian ice hockey team Salavat Yulaev Ufa.^{[citation needed]}

Racing record

Career summary

† – As Kvyat was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete GP3 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete FIA European Formula 3 Championship results

(key)

Notes:

• ‡ − As Kvyat was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score championship points.

Complete Formula One participations

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicates fastest lap)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Daniil Kvyat.

• Official website
• Daniil Kvyat on Twitter
• Daniil Kvyat career summary at DriverDB.com

v t e Scuderia Toro Rosso Team Principal Franz Tost Personnel Alex Hitzinger James Key Steve Nielsen Former personnel Giorgio Ascanelli Gerhard Berger 2014 Race drivers 25. Jean-Éric Vergne 26. Daniil Kvyat 2014 Test drivers TBA Former drivers Scott Speed Sebastian Vettel Vitantonio Liuzzi Sébastien Bourdais Jaime Alguersuari Sébastien Buemi Daniel Ricciardo Related team Infiniti Red Bull Racing Formula One cars STR1 STR2/STR2B STR3 STR4 STR5 STR6 STR7 STR8 STR9