Daniil Kvyat: The Russian Driver Who Became Formula One's Youngest Points Scorer

Daniil Kvyat is a Russian racing driver who competed in Formula One from 2014 to 2020 and now races in Japan's Super GT. He raced for Toro Rosso and Red Bull, took podiums in 2015, 2016 and 2019, and ended his top-level career as the most successful Russian driver in the sport's history. He has since moved into sportscars and touring cars.

How did Daniil Kvyat start in karting and junior formulae?

Kvyat began karting in Moscow and moved to Italy in 2007 to race in a more competitive environment. He won several international titles there before progressing to junior formulae in 2010, with the Red Bull junior programme backing him from the start.

Daniil Vyacheslavovich Kvyat was born on 26 April 1994 in Ufa, Bashkortostan, and his family moved to Moscow when he was six. His first professional win came in January 2005 in Sochi, and during the 2005 and 2006 seasons he raced in local events and the occasional race in Italy. His family moved there in the winter of 2007 to support his commitment, and he began school in Italy while continuing to race.

In 2008 he signed with the Zanardi factory team, led by manager Dino Chiesa, to race in KF3. The partnership did not produce results, so he switched to the privateers at Morsicani Racing just before the championship began. In their first race together he reached the final and was fighting for the win, and the pair went on to take several prestigious events, including WSK rounds and the Bridgestone Cup.

In 2009 he won the KF3 Winter Cup after starting from the back of the grid because of a clutch failure in qualifying, and he claimed bronze at the European Championship. His last karting win came in the final WSK round of the season with the Intrepid team. Red Bull then moved him into Formula BMW for 2010, which marked the end of his karting wins.

In 2010 he won his first race in the Formula BMW Asian Championship in Malaysia, and he had a better second half of the European season. He finished second at Monza in his debut season, and two weeks later he won a race at the Asian Championship in Singapore.

He raced in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand in 2011 before joining Koiranen for full Formula Renault campaigns. He finished runner-up to Carlos Sainz Jr in the Northern European Cup with seven wins, including a hat-trick at Monza, and he took two Eurocup wins at Spa and the Nurburgring. In 2012 he claimed the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps title and was runner-up in the Eurocup after a wrong tyre choice cost him in Barcelona.

From a Ufa karting start to a Hungarian podium for Red Bull, and a Super GT career that continues today.

How did Kvyat reach Formula One so young?

Kvyat reached Formula One by winning in the junior categories. He became GP3 champion in his first season in 2013, won the Spa race that August, and then earned a Formula One contract from Helmut Marko after a dominant Zandvoort win in the European Formula 3 Championship.

His 2013 season was built around two championships. He drove for MW Arden in GP3 and for Carlin in the European Formula 3 Championship, where he was a late registration and ineligible for points. In Formula 3 he scored five pole positions and seven podiums, and his win at Zandvoort came with a mistake by the organisers, who played a different anthem from the Russian national one. He ended the year with the GP3 title, a championship he won in a single season after a difficult start.

Kvyat joined Toro Rosso for 2014 alongside Jean-Eric Vergne, replacing Daniel Ricciardo, who moved up to Red Bull. He had already taken part in Friday practice for the last two races of 2013, in the United States and Brazil. He made his debut at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, aged 19, and finished ninth after making the top ten in qualifying.

That ninth place made him the youngest points scorer in Formula One history, breaking a record that had belonged to Sebastian Vettel. He scored more points in Malaysia, China, Britain and Belgium and finished the year fifteenth overall. The organisers of the inaugural Russian Grand Prix announced plans to name a stand at the Sochi Autodrom after him.

What happened during Kvyat's Red Bull years?

Kvyat was promoted to Red Bull for 2015, replacing Vettel, who joined Ferrari. His first podium came at the 2015 Hungarian Grand Prix, a second-place finish that was the best result by a Russian driver in Formula One. At 21 years and 91 days he became the second-youngest podium finisher in the sport's history, after Vettel.

The year was not without setbacks. At the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix he crashed heavily in qualifying and flipped the car against the barriers, but he was unhurt and finished thirteenth the following day. He ended the season with 95 points and seventh in the championship, three points ahead of his teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

The 2016 season started slowly, but Kvyat finished third at the third round in China, securing the first Red Bull podium of that season. At his home race in Russia, however, a collision with Vettel at the start led to a demotion. Red Bull announced that Max Verstappen would take his seat from the Spanish Grand Prix, and Kvyat returned to Toro Rosso.

Back at Toro Rosso, he was re-signed for 2017 after a period of speculation about his future. Several technical retirements and occasional driver mistakes marked the year, and they cost him the race seat, and in September 2017 the team announced that Pierre Gasly would replace him for the Malaysian Grand Prix. Kvyat returned for the United States Grand Prix, but he was released from the Red Bull driver development programme later that year.

How did Kvyat's Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri years end?

He spent 2018 as a development driver for Ferrari, focusing mainly on the team's simulator at Maranello, and drove the SF71H for the first time at Fiorano in a Pirelli wet-weather test. He then returned to the Toro Rosso team for 2019, replacing Gasly, who had moved up to Red Bull. The team was renamed AlphaTauri in 2020.

Kvyat's most important result of his second Toro Rosso spell came at the 2019 German Grand Prix. He pitted for dry tyres before most of the field and overtook Lance Stroll, and his third place in the rain was Toro Rosso's first podium since the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. It was his third career podium. He also finished seventh in Belgium after starting nineteenth, and he ended the 2019 season 13th with 37 points.

The 2020 season went less well. He retired from the Austrian Grand Prix with a suspension failure and from the British Grand Prix after a tyre failure caused a heavy crash. His best result came at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, where he finished fourth after overtaking several drivers after a safety car restart. He finished 14th with 32 points, while Gasly scored 75.

AlphaTauri did not retain him for 2021, and Yuki Tsunoda took his seat. Kvyat left Formula One as the most successful Russian driver in its history, with three podiums and one fastest lap over six seasons.

How did Kvyat's sportscar career develop?

Kvyat's sportscar career began in the World Endurance Championship after his Formula One career ended. He had been due to race for G-Drive in the LMP2 class in 2022, but the team withdrew in March after sanctions were imposed in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Kvyat called the restrictions on Russian athletes unfair and discriminatory.

He returned in 2023 with Prema in LMP2, driving under an Italian licence. He finished third at the season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring on debut, which gave him his first WEC podium. He crashed out of the 24 Hours of Le Mans during the night, in the Porsche Curves, and the car's retirement followed. The team finished eighth in the teams' standings.

In 2024 he joined Lamborghini in the premier Hypercar class, driving the SC63 with Mirko Bortolotti and Edoardo Mortara. Their first points of the year came at Le Mans, where the trio finished tenth overall, and the team finished at the bottom of the full-time manufacturers' table. Lamborghini then moved to the IMSA SportsCar Championship for 2025, and Kvyat's best result there was fourth at Petit Le Mans.

What else has Kvyat raced?

Kvyat has also taken part in several other series. He made three starts in the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series for Team Hezeberg, using his Formula One number 26, and his NASCAR debut came in the Verizon 200 at Indianapolis, where he finished 36th after suspension trouble.

In Formula E he took part in the Berlin rookie test and a rookie session at the Rome ePrix with NIO 333 Racing in 2023. He returned to Formula E in 2025, when DS Penske selected him for the Jeddah rookie practice, where he finished fifth, and again for a test at Madrid in 2026.

His current racing is in Super GT. In 2026 he made his debut in the GT300 class, driving a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo 2 for the JLOC team alongside Takashi Kogure. At the season opener in Okayama he charged from 14th to sixth in the closing stint.

Career summary