- Toro Rosso
Kvyat: No surprise Vergne was snubbed by Red Bull
Daniil Kvyat admits he is not surprised he was given the nod to replace Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull over current Toro Rosso team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne.
Kvyat's promotion was confirmed on Saturday morning when Red Bull announced Vettel is leaving the team at the end of the year. Last year Vergne was overlooked as then-team-mate Daniel Ricciardo earned promotion to Red Bull, and has since lost his 2015 seat to Dutch prodigy Max Verstappen.
But Kvyat, who is still in his rookie season, says he believes Red Bull made the logical decision in picking him over Vergne.
"No, I'm not surprised," Kvyat said when asked about the situation. "It's clear that last year they picked Daniel. I know Jean-Eric is a great driver, I have to admit this - he's very, very quick and experienced as well. But I have been racing a long time even if I've not been in F1 for very long. There are some things you can only learn by doing them and that's what I think will happen for me."
Kvyat does not think Vergne should have been promoted just because he has been in F1 for a longer period of time, having joined Toro Rosso in 2012.
"Already this year we can see that experience itself is not playing a big role for Jean-Eric. He's been a fantastic benchmark for me and we've pushed each other - he's pushed me a lot and helped me develop a lot as a driver, since the beginning I had a very high benchmark because we know that JEV and Daniel were really, really close last year."
When asked if he felt ready to step up to Red Bull despite having just 14 F1 races to his name, Kvyat replied: "Yes, I am confident I have. I have to be thankful to Red Bull for this opportunity, for the trust and faith. We have been together for a long way so they know what sort of person I am, so I will do my absolute best to keep the team's name high, my name high, our name high. It will be interesting."
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