Red Bull Formula 1 advisor Helmet Marko says that Daniil Kvyat was more talented than current Toro Rosso drivers Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley, however “he lost his speed and ease.”
Kvyat made his F1 debut in 2014 with Toro Rosso, before earning promotion to Red Bull in 2015; he outscored Daniel Ricciardo but was demoted to Toro Rosso four races into the 2016 season in favour of teenage sensation Max Verstappen.
Kvyat remained for the start of 2017 but was benched for the Malaysian and Japanese Grands Prix before racing again at the United States Grand Prix, which is his last F1 race to date. The Russian officially parted ways with Red Bull after that.
When asked by Motorsport.com if he thought Kvyat had more talent than Gasly and Hartley, Marko replied: “Yes, I completely agree.
“Unfortunately he just showed it in his first year with Toro Rosso and in his first year with Red Bull Racing [2015].
“After that, his performance drastically went down.
“He had brake and tyre issues, that [Daniel] Ricciardo didn’t have. In short, something happened to him mentally. He lost his speed and his ease.
“We don’t know [what it was]. We tried many things, but his speed just wouldn’t come back. Unfortunately, we have no idea what happened.
“There were also too many accidents at the start of a race, and he didn’t react too well to it either. He retreated into his shell and didn’t want anybody to tell him what to do.”
Kvyat has had a notable junior formula career, coming runner-up in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 series and winning both the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps and GP3 championships.
“It’s sad because I remember GP3 in Monza and Spa where he completely outperformed the competition,” Marko added.
“At Toro Rosso, there was also one race where he started from behind and made his way through the field [2014 Italian GP].
“He was attacking [Kimi] Raikkonen when his brakes failed. He had some sensational races.”
