A year ago Daniil Kvyat's Formula 1 career appeared to be over. He had been told by Helmut Marko straight after the United States Grand Prix that he was out of Toro Rosso and the Red Bull programme, and he seemed to have little chance of being picked up by anyone else.
A glimmer of hope came when he was chosen by Ferrari to undertake a simulator role, sharing the workload with Maranello proteges Antonio Giovinazzi and Antonio Fuoco. It was paid employment, but he knew it wasn't even worth dreaming about ever landing a race seat there.
Instead, he's been called back to Toro Rosso for 2019, after Daniel Ricciardo's defection to Renault gave Pierre Gasly the chance to graduate to Red Bull - just as Sebastian Vettel's move to Ferrari handed Kvyat an early promotion to the senior squad for '15.