Ex-Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat has claimed he rejected a proposal from Ferrari to replace Kimi Raikkonen early in 2016.
Having entered F1 in 2014 with Toro Rosso, Kvyat was impressive enough to earn a promotion to the senior Red Bull team when Sebastian Vettel opted to depart for Ferrari.
During his sole full campaign with the Austrian outfit, Kvyat outscored race-winning team-mate Daniel Ricciardo before starting his second season with a podium at the third round in China.
Kvyat has now revealed his efforts yielded a contract offer from Ferrari, which would have seen him partner Vettel at the prestigious Italian marque.
However, everything fell apart when he was axed from Red Bull only four races into 2016 after taking Vettel out on the opening lap at his home grand prix.
Speaking on the Track Limits podcast, Kvyat has opened up on how it was hard to mentally recover in the wake of his demotion from Red Bull and seeing a potential proposal from F1’s most successful team also fall through.
“I was performing really well I think,” he recalled. “I just scored another podium for the team and then at the time had also a proposal to race for Ferrari to replace Kimi [Raikkonen].
“And that was going on behind the curtain, so it was a very difficult situation also for me mentally to go back from being wanted by Ferrari, having seen the contract, and then you go back to Toro Rosso suddenly and then you’re like… it’s not going well suddenly.”
With his confidence wrecked, Kvyat’s performances took a turn for the worst through the remainder of 2016 as he scored only a further four points at Toro Rosso, while his replacement at Red Bull, Max Verstappen, went on to win his debut race with the team in Spain.
Although he retained his place at Toro Rosso, Kvyat’s performances didn’t improve further in 2017, resulting in him being dropped by the Red Bull motorsport stable entirely before the season was out.
Kvyat would eventually end up sporting the scarlet red of Ferrari in 2018 but only in a third-driver capacity as an understudy to Raikkonen and Vettel.
He would be handed a surprise F1 reprieve, however, when Toro Rosso required a seat to be filled in 2019, partnering rookie Alex Albon at the Faenza side.
Despite managing to score a podium at a chaotic rain-affected German Grand Prix in his comeback season, Kvyat was overlooked for a return to Red Bull when Pierre Gasly was dropped midway through the year.
In a battle of the two ousted Red Bull drivers, Gasly would out-perform Kvyat through the course of the next year and a half at Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri, leading to the latter being shown the exit door when Honda-backed junior Yuki Tsunoda was deemed ready to be handed his top-tier debut.
Meanwhile, Ferrari continued with Raikkonen alongside Vettel up until Charles Leclerc replaced the Finn at the Scuderia in 2019, scoring two wins in his maiden year.
Kvyat eventually penned a deal to become Alpine’s reserve driver for 2021 but no full-time return to the grid manifested itself, with the Moscow-born racer instead dabbling in NASCAR and endurance racing since his shortlived second F1 stint.
The former three-time F1 podium finisher is also set to make his Formula E debut at the end of the month for the Nio 333 team during a test in Berlin.
