Daniil Kvyat delivers savage clip to Daniel Ricciardo after Red Bull pairing

A former Red Bull teammate of Daniel Ricciardo has opened up on their rivalry and delivered a stinging clip to the Aussie star.

Kvyat delivers bizarre Ricciardo swipe

A former Daniel Ricciardo teammate has delivered a bizarre swipe at his old running mate.

The Australian parades around the paddock with a smile as big as the opening to Luna Park, but his infectiously happy person isn’t for everyone it seems.

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Former Formula 1 driver Daniil Kvyat said the Perth native’s over the top personality became at times “too much”.

Kvyat replaced Sebastian Vettel after he departed in 2015 in a high-profile switch to join Ferrari.

The young Russian was promoted from Toro Rosso to partner with Ricciardo who had outperformed his four-time world champion teammate.

The now 33-year-old Ricciardo was coming off the best season of his F1 career having finished third in the drivers standings behind Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Kvyat said his arrival into the Red Bull garage came with plenty of expectation with those in the team believing Ricciardo was ready to go a step further as the number one.

Kvyat delivers bizarre Ricciardo swipe

“Daniel Ricciardo at the time was like a big superstar, and when I came into the team, he just beat Vettel so there was a lot of hype around him in the team and everywhere,” Kvyat said on the Track Limits podcast.

“So everyone was like, ‘yeah, he’s the man to beat now. He’s probably the best driver on the grid right now.’

“That’s what they were telling me. So for me, it was huge. Now it’s different, of course, but back then he was top notch. So for me was a big year, 2015, when I just got into a Red Bull.”

Things didn’t go according to plan as the Red Bull’s fell off the pace with Kvyat finishing seventh in the stands, marginally ahead of Ricciardo.

The duo spent countless hours alongside one another as teammates with Kvyat labelling the Aussie his strongest rival throughout his career.

But throughout their time together, Ricciardo’s playful nature got under the skin of the Russian.

Kvyat said Ricciardo was a bit too much. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

“My impression of him was he was the man at the time, very funny personality so very attractive for media – bit too much for me – but no, we got along well,” Kvyat said.

“There was a lot of rivalry between us, of course. The beginning was like he was taking things easy, then when he saw that, okay, I have pace, then [he] started also to stay in [the] motorhome until midnight like me and we were both there sitting, engineers were gone already and we were still there studying the data seeing who would go home later.

“But no, I rate him very good. I think those cars, they suited him up perfectly also at the time, had good understanding of tyres. Those tyres were a bit different, they were very fragile.

“He’s been a very strong rival, I think pushing me to the limit. An impression? Yeah, a lot of jokes, but he’s a nice, nice guy.”