Toro Rosso has announced that Daniil Kvyat will drive for the team in 2014 as replacement for Daniel Ricciardo, who moves to Red Bull.

Kvyat, another product of the Red Bull Junior Driver Programme, will therefore partner Jean-Eric Vergne in the Faenza outfit's line-up. This year, the 19 year old Russian, who is based in Rome, has been competing in GP3 and the FIA Formula 3 European Championship.

"This is fantastic news," said Kvyat, "a dream come true and I want to thank Red Bull and Toro Rosso for giving me this priceless opportunity. Ever since I began karting, I wanted to get to Formula 1 and now that wish will become reality next season. I had a brief taste of working with the Toro Rosso team, when I drove for them at the Silverstone test and I enjoyed the experience very much. The fact I am based in Italy and speak Italian will, I am sure, help me to become part of the team very quickly."

"We are pleased to continue our policy of bringing on drivers from the Red Bull Junior Programme," added Franz Tost. "Daniil is a very talented driver, which can be seen from his results in all the junior categories. He was a very successful Kart driver and, in 2012 he took the Formula Renault 2.0 Championship title with 7 wins. This year, he competed in six rounds of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship, taking 1 win, 5 poles and 5 podiums.

"In addition to this, he is still in a position to win the GP 3 Championship, as he is only 7 points behind the leader. He impressed our team with a strong performance and very informative technical feedback at the young driver test in Silverstone. This suggests that the basic qualities from which he can progress are all in place. Daniil can be sure that we will use all our experience of training youngsters to give him the best possible start to his Formula 1 career."

Other than future teammate Vergne, who tweeted "Looking forward to work with you mate. See you in 2014 and even before", one of the first to congratulate Kvyat was the man most actually expected to get the second seat, who admitted: "It hurts but its like this, im happy for Daniil and that it stays in the Red Bull Family, enjoy mate."

He subsequently tweeted: "And i love you all, all my supporters, fans and lovers, its been amazing to feel your support, its not over, thank you all! Looking for a new flat mate."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by The Rumble Strip, 28/10/2013 22:07

"I’m not totally sure about the logic of this move as things stand.

I understand the need to promote from the Red Bull junior programme, in order to give it some sort of semblance that it does work but for me, the majority of drivers that have come through this route have either not been good enough, or been moved up the grid to early.

It’s true that Kvyat outwardly appears to have performed better than supposed other candidates, Da Costa and Sainz, for the role but what has happened to logical career progression and is it now seemingly ok to skip GP2 altogether before landing a F1 seat.
"

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Toro Rosso names Kvyat for 2014

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