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Daniil Kvyat insists he is staying calm amid his troubled time in formula one. Before the 2015 season, the 21-year-old was a rising star of the sport, having earned graduation to the championship-winning Red Bull team within a single season.
The premier energy drink-owned outfit, however, is in deep crisis this year, and even the drivers are not being spared criticism. "Kvyat lost two seconds each time he was lapping (another car)," the notoriously-demanding Dr Helmut Marko, head of Red Bull's driver programme, said after Spain. "Even his laptimes were not consistent," the Austrian added.
On the other hand, he described Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, the latest juniors at the second team Toro Rosso, as "exceptional". "Our so-called established guys need to look out," Marko reportedly told Austrian media.
Kvyat has at least won the backing of his former Toro Rosso chief, Franz Tost, who says the Russian has been blessed with "the champion gene". He suggested Kvyat won his promotion to replace the Ferrari-bound Sebastian Vettel too soon. "It takes time to mature in an F1 car," Tost told F1's official website. "That is why I say that I want to work with drivers for three years, and then hand them over."
The Austrian also urged Kvyat to look away from the critical reports. "Yes, because it can distract and destabilise a young driver -- and consumes time," said Tost. "I tell them to go to the fitness room instead!"
So, at the tender age of 21, Kvyat is having to prove himself as well as help Red Bull out of its trough. "There are no miracles in formula one," the young Russian is quoted by Speed Week. "We can only continue to work in peace and try as hard as possible."
Currently, he has scored only 15 per cent of Red Bull's points in 2015, and outqualified his experienced teammate Daniel Ricciardo only once in five races. But Kvyat insists: "I'm not disappointed. And I don't feel any frustration in the team, we just want to work our way out of trouble. The potential is there, and I also know that I can show more than the results suggest." (GMM)
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