Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost reckons a "short break" will serve Daniil Kvyat well, as he believes the Russian has "natural speed" that he struggled to show in 2016 and 2017 due to various problems.
Kvyat started out with Toro Rosso in 2014 before being promoted to Red Bull the following season where he finished seventh overall with 95 points, three more than then team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
However the following season he was dropped after the fourth race following a number of incidents, with Max Verstappen taking up his position at the Spanish Grand Prix – a race the Dutchman won – whilst Kvyat returned to Toro Rosso. That lasted until the Malaysian GP where Pierre Gasly replaced him.
Tost believes Kvyat still deserves a seat in the sport and reckons a short break – similar to Romain Grosjean's two-year sabbatical – will allow him to overcome some of the issues that plagued his career in recent seasons.
"I am still convinced that Daniil has a very high natural speed," Tost told the official F1 website. "He was sometimes even faster than Daniel Riccardo, but somehow last year and this year he couldn’t show the potential that is within him.
"He was involved in many incidents – but in his defence I also have to say that he had many reliability issues and that didn’t help build up confidence."
Tost highlighted Kvyat's multiple first-lap collisions as part of the reason.
"Sometimes he was too aggressive at the beginning of the race. The first corner was his weak point. He wanted too much in the first hundred metres – success by any means! That puts you under pressure – unnecessary pressure – and that never works.
"Being the victim of too many incidents killed the performance he would have been able to show.
"I hope for him that he gets another chance, as I think he deserves to be in F1. Maybe a short break – to get organised again – and probably we will see Daniil back at his usual performance level with another team."
