Having been demoted from his Red Bull Racing seat, following his involvement in a double on track incident with Sebastian Vettel at the Russian Grand Prix, Daniil Kvyat returns to where his F1 career started, with the Scuderia Toro Rosso team.
It was no doubt a huge blow to the Russian, who many feel was given a raw deal after just one bad race, but Kvyat is not about to let that fact deter him from having a successful weekend with the Faenza-based squad however, and is looking forward to returning to Spain, and a team and colleagues he is already familiar with.
“The Barcelona track is one I know well as I’ve tested there many times since I was a kid,” said Kvyat. “I like Turn 9 as it’s the fastest corner here, I’d say it’s my favourite of this track.
“Even though we know this circuit inside out, it’s not an easy one as its very set-up dependent. You need to really be able to set-up your car in a nice way and get a good compromise between high and low speed, slow and fast sections as well as deciding how you want your car to be behaving regarding oversteer and understeer…So whoever manages to do this the best will have a good race, but it’s always a challenge.
“I also think that because I speak Spanish it helps and it means people can support and talk to me, which is always nice.”
Having partnered Carlos Sainz during Formula BMW, Formula Renault and GP3 previously, the pair know each other well and are very much used to working together. That should hopefully mean, as they push each other to their limits, success will not be too far away from Toro Rosso’s doors.