Kvyat collided with Sebastian Vettel twice at the start of the Russian Grand Prix last weekend, with the second contact resulting in the Ferrari ending up in the wall. After the race, Red Bull boss Christian Horner said Kvyat "accepts he made a mistake" and apologized to the team. But following talks, Red Bull has taken the decision to drop Kvyat in favour of Verstappen from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards.
Verstappen will join Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull, while Kvyat will partner Carlos Sainz Jr at Toro Rosso, where Kvyat has previous experience with the team back in the 2014 season with best results of three ninth place finishes.
Overall, happy for Max Verstappen and completely gutted for Daniil Kvyat, despite he was on the podium in China the first lap nightmare at his home race last weekend was the perfect opportunity/excuse to replace him with Verstappen.
Also, the driver swap more on securing Max Verstappen for the long-term rather than demoting Kvyat. Keeping Verstappen services for the long-term at Red Bull was their number one priority, as he been rumoured he might be off to Mercedes or Ferrari next season and promoting him to the main team right now may secure his services for another few seasons rather than gambling it later on the season and paying more.
Also, with Verstappen and Sainz they are not getting along as team-mates it has been heavily rumoured lately, and with Kvyat not performing at Red Bull against team-mate Ricciardo. The best option for Red Bull is to promote Verstappen to Red Bull and demote Kvyat back to Toro Rosso and ease the pressure off for Kvyat. I don't think Kvyat will get sacked at the end of the season as there is no Red Bull Junior drivers to promote unless Pierre Gasly wins or heavily challenges the GP2 series this season and then his 2017 drive may be in jeopardy then.
Don't think this will be the last driver change in Formula 1 this season.
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