Carlos Sainz hopes former Toro Rosso teammate Daniil Kvyat will get the chance to race in Formula 1 again in the future after being permanently dropped from the Red Bull program following his last appearance at the United States Grand Prix.
The Russian was drafted back in for the race in Austin after losing his seat to Pierre Gasly from the Malaysian round, though he performed well, finishing 10th, it wouldn’t be enough to save his future as advisor Helmut Marko confirmed it would be the last time he competed under the Red Bull banner.
It was the final nail in the coffin following 18 months of misery which began with Kvyat being demoted back to the junior team after his home race in Sochi last year and has now culminated in the 23-year-old needing a new path in his career.
“We joined the Red Bull programme on exactly the same day in 2009, and in 2010 we did our first year. I was hoping to have him also in F1 for many years, and I hope I find him back in F1 soon,” Sainz said reflecting on his relationship with the former GP3 champion.
At the same time, however, the Spaniard, who has now joined Renault until at least the end of 2018 on loan from the Red Bull stable, admits it is the price some have to pay for not meeting the requirement of those who have helped your racing career grow.
“It’s probably the toughest platform out there,” he claimed. “It’s the one that gives you the most, but it can also take away everything that it gives you.
“For me, and I think for everyone that has even been dropped by Red Bull or given a chance, I think without them we would have never had a chance to drive an F1 car or compete in F1. They are very tough, but they have reasons to be tough.”
Also in Mexico, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner defended the decision to drop Kvyat, believing he had been given sufficient opportunity to prove himself after the disappointment of what occurred last season.
“Dany Kvyat has obviously had a large investment from Red Bull over the years,” he stated. “He had the opportunity to step into Red Bull Racing and compete in the 2015 season and the start of the 2016 season with the team.
“Formula 1 is a tough business and unfortunately Dany didn’t do enough, in our opinion, to warrant retaining that seat but we still believed in him and he was given a second opportunity, which is very unusual in Formula 1, to retake the seat with Toro Rosso.
“And then from there we obviously have other juniors that we have invested in that are knocking on the door of F1.”
Those juniors are Gasly, who finally has his chance after winning the GP2 title last year and Brendon Hartley, a driver that knows what it’s like to be dropped from Red Bull but is being given a second chance in F1 after several successful years in the WEC.
