Biography & Early Wealth Journey
Daniil Kvyat is best known for his Formula One career with Toro Rosso, Red Bull Racing, and AlphaTauri. He competed in 110 Formula One Grands Prix, scored 202 championship points, and recorded three podium finishes. His best season came in 2015, when he finished seventh in the Drivers' Championship and scored more points than his Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricciardo.
Kvyat's F1 career became one of the more dramatic stories of the Red Bull driver-development system. After being promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull at just 20 years old, he reached the podium twice for the senior team but was demoted four races into the 2016 season so Red Bull could promote Max Verstappen. Red Bull dropped Kvyat completely in 2017, only to bring him back to Toro Rosso for 2019. He celebrated that comeback with a third-place finish at the German Grand Prix.
After leaving Formula One, Kvyat continued racing in NASCAR, the FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA, and other series. He became a Lamborghini factory driver in 2023 and helped develop and race the Lamborghini SC63 prototype. In 2026, he moved into Japan's Super GT championship, racing a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 for JLOC while remaining part of Lamborghini's factory-driver roster.
Early Life
Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts
Daniil Vyacheslavovich Kvyat was born on April 26, 1994, in Ufa, Russia. His family moved to Moscow when he was a child, and it was there that he first became interested in kart racing.
Kvyat began competing seriously in karts while still young. As his racing ambitions developed, his family moved him to Italy in 2007 so he could compete against stronger European competition and gain access to the infrastructure surrounding professional motorsport.
Italy became an important second home for Kvyat. He learned the language, attended school there, and spent much of his formative racing career based around Rome and the European karting circuit.
Karting and Junior Racing
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Kvyat quickly distinguished himself in international karting and eventually attracted the attention of Red Bull's driver-development program. He moved into single-seater racing in 2010 and competed in Formula BMW before advancing through several Formula Renault championships.
His breakthrough came in 2012. Kvyat won the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps championship and finished second in the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 standings behind Stoffel Vandoorne. The results established him as one of Red Bull's most promising young drivers.
Kvyat advanced to GP3 in 2013 and won the championship during his rookie season. He captured multiple victories late in the year and secured the title, giving Red Bull enough confidence to skip several traditional development steps and place him directly into Formula One.
Formula One Debut With Toro Rosso
Wealth Trajectory & Future Earnings Projections
Kvyat made his Formula One debut with Toro Rosso at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. He was 19 years old and immediately scored points by finishing ninth, becoming the youngest driver in Formula One history at the time to score a championship point.
He competed alongside Jean-Éric Vergne and finished his rookie season with eight points. Although his results were modest, Red Bull was impressed by his speed, adaptability, and maturity.
When four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel left Red Bull for Ferrari following the 2014 season, the team made the surprising decision to promote Kvyat directly into Vettel's seat.
(Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)
Red Bull Racing
Kvyat joined Red Bull Racing for the 2015 season alongside Daniel Ricciardo. It was an enormous promotion for a driver entering only his second Formula One season.
After a difficult start to the year, Kvyat became increasingly competitive. He finished fourth in Monaco and scored his first Formula One podium with second place at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Kvyat ended the season seventh in the championship with 95 points, three more than Ricciardo. Although differences in reliability affected both drivers during the year, finishing ahead of his highly regarded teammate was an important achievement.
He remained with Red Bull at the beginning of 2016 and recorded another podium with third place at the Chinese Grand Prix. That result came after an aggressive first-lap move involving Vettel, who jokingly called Kvyat a "torpedo" during a tense post-race exchange. The nickname followed Kvyat for years.
Demotion for Max Verstappen
Kvyat's position at Red Bull changed dramatically following the 2016 Russian Grand Prix. He made contact with Vettel twice on the opening lap, knocking the Ferrari driver out of the race.
Before the next Grand Prix in Spain, Red Bull announced that Kvyat would return to Toro Rosso while Max Verstappen would take his seat at Red Bull. Verstappen immediately won his first race for the senior team, making the driver swap one of the most famous personnel decisions in modern Formula One.
For Kvyat, the change was much more difficult. He struggled after returning to Toro Rosso and scored only a handful of points over the remainder of the season.
Red Bull retained him for 2017 alongside Carlos Sainz Jr., but inconsistent performances continued. Late in the season, Toro Rosso replaced him, and Red Bull released him from its driver program.
Ferrari Development Driver
Kvyat spent the 2018 season away from competitive Formula One racing. Ferrari hired him as a development driver, giving him extensive simulator work and allowing him to experience how another championship-winning organization operated.
The role provided Kvyat with a lower-pressure environment after several turbulent seasons inside the Red Bull system. He later described the Ferrari experience as an important period in his development and said it renewed his desire to return to racing.
That opportunity arrived sooner than expected. With Red Bull needing drivers for its junior team, Kvyat was invited back to Toro Rosso for the 2019 season.
2019 Comeback and German Grand Prix Podium
Kvyat returned to Formula One in 2019 and quickly demonstrated that his career was not finished. He scored points consistently during the first half of the season and performed strongly alongside rookie Alexander Albon.
His comeback reached its high point at the rain-soaked German Grand Prix. In a chaotic race filled with crashes, safety cars, and changing conditions, Kvyat finished third. It was Toro Rosso's first podium since Vettel won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix.
The result carried additional personal significance because Kvyat's daughter had been born the night before the race.
Kvyat finished the 2019 season 13th in the Drivers' Championship with 37 points. Toro Rosso retained him for 2020 as the team was rebranded AlphaTauri.
AlphaTauri and Final Formula One Season
Kvyat raced alongside Pierre Gasly during the 2020 season. Gasly produced the team's biggest moment by winning the Italian Grand Prix, while Kvyat's strongest result came at Imola, where he finished fourth.
Kvyat ended the season 14th in the standings with 32 points. AlphaTauri replaced him with Yuki Tsunoda for 2021, ending Kvyat's Formula One race career.
Across his six seasons as a Formula One race driver, Kvyat made 110 starts, earned 202 points, recorded three podium finishes, and set one fastest lap. He never won a Grand Prix or earned a pole position.
Formula One Salary
Kvyat's Formula One earnings varied significantly depending on his team and status within the Red Bull organization. Published salary estimates placed his 2015 Red Bull compensation near $750,000 and his 2016 salary at around $1 million.
His Toro Rosso salary for 2017 was estimated at $750,000. After returning to Formula One, one paddock-based estimate placed his 2019 Toro Rosso salary at $2 million and his 2020 AlphaTauri salary at $2 million. Performance bonuses were separate from those base figures.
Those amounts do not include compensation from his 2018 Ferrari development role, his 2021 Alpine reserve-driver position, personal sponsorships, or his later factory contracts in endurance racing.
Alpine Reserve Driver
Kvyat remained connected to Formula One after losing his AlphaTauri seat. Alpine hired him as its reserve driver for the 2021 season, supporting race drivers Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.
His responsibilities included simulator work, car development, and remaining prepared to substitute if one of the team's race drivers became unavailable. The role gave Kvyat another season inside the Formula One paddock but did not lead to a full-time racing return.
After 2021, he began exploring opportunities outside Formula One more seriously.
NASCAR
Kvyat made an unexpected move into American stock-car racing in 2022. He entered several NASCAR Cup Series events with Team Hezeberg, making his debut on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
The transition from Formula One machinery to heavy NASCAR stock cars represented a completely different form of racing. Kvyat's NASCAR appearances were limited, but the experience reflected his willingness to pursue opportunities beyond European open-wheel competition.
He also explored endurance racing during the period. Kvyat had initially been scheduled to compete for G-Drive Racing in the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship, but the team withdrew following restrictions introduced after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
World Endurance Championship
Kvyat moved into endurance racing full-time in 2023 with Prema Racing in the LMP2 class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The season included his first appearance at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
At the same time, Lamborghini selected Kvyat as an official factory driver and development driver for its new SC63 prototype. The project was designed to compete at the top level of sports-car racing against manufacturers including Porsche, Ferrari, Toyota, BMW, and Cadillac.
Kvyat moved into the Hypercar class with Lamborghini Iron Lynx in 2024. He competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship alongside drivers including Mirko Bortolotti and Edoardo Mortara and finished 10th overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Lamborghini and IMSA
Lamborghini shifted its SC63 program toward the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for 2025. Kvyat competed in major endurance races with the factory-backed program alongside former Formula One driver Romain Grosjean and other Lamborghini drivers.
Kvyat returned for the season-ending Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, where the SC63 completed its final scheduled IMSA appearance before Lamborghini paused the prototype program for 2026.
Despite the pause, Kvyat remained an official Lamborghini factory driver. His relationship with the Italian manufacturer became the central professional partnership of his post-Formula One career.
Super GT
Kvyat began another new chapter in 2026 by moving to Japan's Super GT championship. He joined JLOC in the GT300 class, sharing the No. 88 Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO2 with veteran Japanese driver Takashi Kogure.
The move represented Kvyat's first full season racing GT3 machinery and his first sustained competition in Japan. He made an encouraging debut at Okayama, finishing sixth in class despite having limited experience with both the car and the championship.
Kvyat continued competing across the Japanese season while remaining part of Lamborghini's factory-driver program. His shift from Formula One to prototypes, stock cars, endurance racing, and GT competition has produced one of the more varied post-F1 careers among drivers of his generation.
Personal Life
Kvyat was previously in a relationship with Kelly Piquet, the daughter of three-time Formula One World Champion Nelson Piquet. The couple had a daughter, Penelope, in July 2019.
Penelope was born the day before Kvyat finished third at the German Grand Prix, making his comeback podium one of the most emotionally significant races of his career. Kvyat and Piquet separated later in 2019.
Kvyat has spent much of his life outside Russia and has particularly strong ties to Italy. He moved there as a teenager, speaks Italian fluently, and has raced internationally under an Italian competition license. He has also lived in Monaco during his professional racing career.
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