The rebirth of a twice rejected F1 driver

What appeared to be Daniil Kvyat's final Formula 1 drive in the 2017 United States Grand Prix was a strong one.

He qualified his Toro Rosso well, starting from 11th, and brought home a point for 10th place despite a battery problem forcing him to switch to a more conservative engine mode. But it was too little, too late.

Had you told Kvyat that, 21 months later, he would stand on the German GP podium - and in Toro Rosso colours - he wouldn't have believed it.

Team principal Franz Tost said the decision to drop him not just from the team, but from the Red Bull F1 stable, was because "both parties lost confidence in each other". But while Kvyat had more than his fair share of mechanical maladies that season, it was really the employer's loss of confidence in the driver that was the sole problem.

During his second stint at Toro Rosso, Kvyat managed to show consistently good pace but consistently failed to convert that into results. In his 14 races alongside Carlos Sainz Jr at Toro Rosso in 2017, his peak pace was just 0.17% off Sainz, but he contrived to turn that into a paltry four points. Sainz managed 48. It was a similar story the season before: Sainz strung 'complete' race weekends together, Kvyat didn't.

Kvyat was trying too hard, frustrated to be beaten by a driver who he thought he'd already seen off in GP3, and couldn't get himself onto an even keel. Rather than focusing on the process, hitting his marks, doing his job and letting the performances emerge from that, he took his eye off the ball.

Last Sunday's performance, the consequence of a well-timed switch to slicks but the culmination of a decent race drive in which he was on for points even before that pitstop, was rightly portrayed as a tale of redemption. It was made all the more compelling by the birth of Kvyat's daughter fewer than 24 hours before. But Kvyat's rebirth had happened long before.

Prior to Germany, he'd had a good 2019 season. He's been a more relaxed, mature, robust character able to take a more phlegmatic approach to both his own good and bad days - and those of the team. The Kvyat of a few years earlier would not have been so understanding of the blunder in Bahrain qualifying when the wrong tyre set number was called for and he was erroneously sent out to qualify on used rubber.

A year out of F1 and away from Red Bull clearly helped. He didn't drop out entirely and devoted himself to his role as Ferrari's development driver, which was a learning opportunity as well as a chance to help the process of what he describes as "working on myself". But you can look back even further beyond that - all the way to that United States GP in 2017.

Before the race, he knew the game was up. After all, he'd missed the preceding Malaysian and Japanese GPs to allow Pierre Gasly to make his F1 debut and was only brought back because his replacement had a clashing commitment in Super Formula. But as we see so often, with all lost, suddenly the weight of the world seemed to be gone from his shoulders. Kvyat talked of a new, more robust mindset - one that allowed him to perform in a way that had eluded him through much of his second Toro Rosso stint.

The fear when Kvyat returned to F1 this year was that he might get into another negative spiral

It's a reminder that the line between success and failure in elite sport is wafer-thin. Kvyat is the same person he always was, just one with a little more experience and maturity, better able to handle the pressure, and all the better for it.

It's too often forgotten that Kvyat's first season in F1 was a strong one. He ranked 10th in Autosport's selection of the drivers of the 2014 season and, when Sebastian Vettel committed to joining Ferrari from Red Bull, Kvyat got the nod over team-mate Jean-Eric Vergne - effectively ending the future double Formula E champion's F1 career.

Kvyat's stint at Red Bull was better than some remember - although not as strong as those who point to his superior points tally compared to team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in 2015 suggest. Ricciardo had a greater share of reliability problems when the Red Bull was stronger during what was the team's worst year early in the V6 turbo hybrid era. Even so it was a good season for Kvyat overall. But his weakness was clear, even in the initial Toro Rosso years.

Even before being dropped for Max Verstappen, Kvyat didn't always react well to adversity.

Look at the high-pressure 2014 Russian GP, when he went into a negative spiral after losing places early on. There were occasions when the otherwise personable Kvyat would react abrasively to questions about errors, or even relatively minor anomalies, which hinted he was struggling to come to terms with the mental challenges of F1. This was a surprise given that what earned him the nod over rivals Sainz and Antonio Felix da Costa for the 2014 drive in the first place was his mental strength and the superior way he reacted to problems.

The fear when he returned to F1 this year, which reflected not only the Red Bull junior driver cupboard being bare at the top but also the organisation's ongoing belief in him, was that he might get into another negative spiral. A fresh environment would have reduced the chances of that, but even when things went wrong early in the season he remained rock solid - definitive proof that he's evolved.

This is also a reminder to F1 teams that drivers who have supposedly had their chance and failed can be 'recycled'. Kvyat's 2014-15 team-mate, Vergne, is an interesting example of this.

Vergne was a driver who showed strong underlying pace during his time at Toro Rosso but also struggled to string things together. He was passed over for promotion, twice, then rebuilt himself in ABB FIA Formula E. Now 29 and with vastly more experience, he could potentially be an asset for an F1 team.

It's easy to forget that, no matter how well prepared these drivers are, they often break into F1 at a very young age. That lack of experience can be a challenge, particularly for those used to success at every level on their way up.

One of life's most important lessons is how to fail and recover, something everyone goes through, but when that failure comes in the full public gaze with the highest of stakes in elite sport, it can be difficult to deal with.

Kvyat is a reminder that sometimes that process needs to be gone through.

Even Verstappen, who is unquestionably now one of the best two drivers in F1, had his own version of this last year when a series of blunders put him under immense pressure. The blow of throwing away a 50/50, or perhaps even more favourable, chance of victory at Monaco with his crash in final practice in 2018 was the failure he needed to realise how to adjust his approach and become the consistently strong performer of the past 14 months.

What we've been reminded of this season is that Kvyat deserves to be defined by more than just the judgements from his 'first' F1 career

Kvyat's story is different, and he's not got the same potential as Verstappen, but there are certain similarities. It's the price you pay for running young drivers - and if handled well it can pay off in spades.

F1 teams love exciting young racers. Partly, it's the desire to get the next big thing on their books, and partly the hope of getting a top gun for a bargain basement pay package. But they should not ignore the potential value of those with experience. While Kvyat's return to Toro Rosso was unusual, especially given the team is the only one on the grid focused on developing young drivers, there's a lesson to be learned there.

Kvyat's form makes him a credible contender for a return to Red Bull Racing, especially considering Gasly's struggles so far in 2019. But given Red Bull has confirmed, rightly, that Gasly will not be replaced this season, that move is not going to happen any time soon even though Kvyat, provided his old problems really are behind him, would likely do a better job at the senior team than Gasly is right now.

It's also doubtful that the Red Bull squad will want to go back down that path in the years beyond 2019 as it has already tried Kvyat, even though his removal after the 2016 Russian GP had more to do with the need to keep Verstappen sweet than anything Kvyat did wrong.

Kvyat's reputation for being a crasher in that period, founded primarily on hitting Vettel twice at the start at Sochi and a few other high-profile prangs - notably rolling in qualifying at Suzuka the year before and breaking Red Bull's only available front wing in Jerez testing - was not well deserved.

What we've been reminded of this season is that Kvyat deserves to be defined by more than just the judgements from his 'first' F1 career - some of them entirely unfair.

Kvyat's return to the podium is confirmation that the underlying ability that was always there has now been converted into a high-quality, dependable grand prix driver. Impressive for a man whose F1 career was over that day at Austin.