Daniil Kvyat returns to the Scuderia Toro Rosso team this weekend for the United States Grand Prix after two race weekends on the sidelines, with Pierre Gasly having raced for the Faenza-based team in the Malaysian and Japanese Grand Prix.
Although the Russian would prefer to be racing in every race, he watched as Toro Rosso struggled for pace in both events, with Gasly getting a best result of thirteenth in Japan, but with the Frenchman racing for the title in the Japanese-based Super Formula championship this weekend, Kvyat is back in the car.
However, the twenty-three-year-old wants clarification from his team and from Red Bull to why he was dropped from those two races in the first place, and what indeed are their plans for him in the future.
“I don’t think I was meant to be happy,” said Kvyat. “Other than that, I think it wasn’t actually a bad thing – looking back at it, looking at how the races were for the team, I wasn’t even too sorry to miss these two races, because they were quite bad for the team’s performance – but, to be honest, you always want to race, no?
“We will discuss these things behind closed doors, we will decide what’s the next move for the future. I think I deserve this, to have clarifications, and we will get them together, one from another.”
Kvyat points out that his contract with Red Bull extends for another two years, but he acknowledges this does not guarantee him a drive in Formula 1, particularly as both Gasly and Brendon Hartley could be in line to race for Toro Rosso for the remaining races of 2017.
“I just do my job, I have a contract with Red Bull for further two years, I think,” said Kvyat. “As far as I have this contract, I have to do [my job] as well as I can, and then if there are any other opportunities, things, we discuss it together and decide what is the best thing to move forward.
“I just have my work here, my car, I have plenty of new stimulations, motivations, and I want to use them to my best, to try to maximise my performance.
“I feel like there was a very big potential all the time, which has not been used this year very well, and I want to correct this, because there is still a chance to correct this.”
