Kvyat: "Marko has given me mental resilience for top level."

It's a well-known story by now. Daniil Kvyat suddenly had to make way for Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing in 2016 after a few races. Just as we saw at Pierre Gasly last year, Helmut Marko is hard and direct with that sort of thing. Kvyat now says he's only got better because of that treatment.

The rigorous way in which his adventure with a top team came to an end won't have come out of the blue for the Russian either. In a long conversation for the Beyond the Grid podcast of Formula 1, he explains that things were not going well between him and the team the weeks before.

"There was already some tension in that period, there wasn't a good atmosphere around me at Red Bull Racing. Even though I finished on the podium, I wasn't confident", Kvyat refers to his podium at the Chinese Grand Prix. However, he was often involved in incidents in those first races and, for example, got the anger of Sebastian Vettel.

Kvyat uses phonecalls Marko in a positive way

Helmut Marko therefore saw the opportunity to let Verstappen take a race later in his seat. "He told me it wasn't going to work and that was it", says the current driver of AlphaTauri about the moment he heard this. The blow came hard, but over the years he had already understood Marko's way of working.

"Sometimes he called me and said: 'Listen, if you don't improve the next race, you're out'. I got that kind of phone calls when I was fifteen. Then he hangs up the phone and you stay behind with your thoughts. But I'd improve on the next race. When I talk about that pressure, I mean it in a positive way. He [Marko] has given me a mental resilience that belongs to this top level."