Red Bull defend decision to split from Kvyat

Red Bull has defended its decision to sever all ties with Daniil Kvyat. The energy drink team confirmed on the build-up to the Mexican Grand Prix that the Russian would not again drive for junior team Toro Rosso, after being brought back in Austin last weekend.

After being dropped for the rounds at Malaysia and Japan, Kvyat was drafted back as Pierre Gasly left to compete in the Super Formula finale, which was cancelled. Despite a strong weekend in which he scored his first point since the Spanish Grand Prix, Red Bull decided to release him.

The 23-year-old joined the Red Bull junior programme in 2010, when he was just 15 years of age. After winning the GP3 Series in 2013, Kvyat joined Formula 1 with Toro Rosso the following year, before being handed a promotion to Red Bull in 2015.

However, with Max Verstappen gaining attention from Ferrari and Mercedes Red Bull took the decision to promote the Dutchman into the senior team, which saw Kvyat drop back down to Toro Rosso. Speaking to Sky F1, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says other juniors are worth investing in. 

"Dany Kvyat has obviously had a large investment from Red Bull over the years," he said. "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 Formula 1."

Fergal Walsh