The young star that could light up F1

The furore surrounding Max Verstappen's age and suitability for Formula 1 has provoked strong criticism of Red Bull, and prompted governing body the FIA to comprehensively review the criteria it uses to award superlicences to drivers.

This hullabaloo has meant F1 sophomore Daniil Kvyat's promotion from Toro Rosso, to replace Ferrari-bound Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull, has slipped largely under the radar of those whose mouths froth at the prospect of ever-younger drivers filling up the F1 grid.

Kvyat has only been racing cars for five years, and F1 cars for just a single season. That makes him a relative veteran compared to Verstappen. But for those who reckon there is no shortcut to experience (or substitute for it), lining up 20-year-old Russian Kvyat alongside emerging superstar Daniel Ricciardo at one of the most successful teams on the current grid surely represents a risk.

In fairness, Red Bull concedes this is not exactly the way it planned things. Kvyat's paymasters wanted to give him at least one more season to develop at Toro Rosso, but Vettel forced their hand by heading off for a fresh adventure at Maranello with a year remaining on his contract.

Red Bull is all about giving young drivers a chance, though, and while it admits it didn't exactly want to push him into this situation so soon in his career, it simultaneously has absolute faith Kvyat can get the job done.

Kvyat, who shunted on his second lap of testing, finds himself at Red Bull... © LAT

Why? To answer this question AUTOSPORT spoke to Toro Rosso technical director James Key, who worked closely with the 2013 GP3 champion (also the subject of an indignant tirade when he was promoted to F1 straight out of GP3) during Kvyat's first season racing at the highest level.

"The good thing with him is that you could see he was naturally very able to do this, but he would be all ears if you had an idea or a different way of doing something," Key explains.

"He came in from GP3, where the way you brake and turn into a corner needed a different approach to F1. We would go through that with him and he would adapt and sort it out.

"He was super-talented and really easy to work with, which is a brilliant combination. He was not too delicate and not too arrogant, with a brilliant sense of humour. The confidence is just something in him, it's not something he has to generate. It is just the way he is."

F1 fans sometimes underestimate the importance of character and attitude in producing a top driver. The Red Bull Junior programme has a reputation for being ruthless and purely results-driven, but it's never as simple as that. Yes, you have to get the job done on the circuit, but that's almost considered a given.

If you don't have the correct attitude, or capacity to learn the right way of working to solve problems and also deliver in adversity, then simple speed and points probably won't be enough, certainly not in the long-term.

It's this sort of approach that Kvyat demonstrated to great effect in 2013, turning around a bad start to the season and winning GP3. It's also a methodology that seriously impressed Toro Rosso.

...just 18 months after taking the GP3 title that propelled him to F1 'too early' © LAT

"He learned very quickly technically and he was very smart," adds Key. "He had to learn in races, because our winter testing didn't go well and there wasn't time for him to learn the procedural stuff, but his natural ability allowed him to score in Melbourne.

"He was very good under pressure, he very rarely got emotional about stuff. Malaysia was particularly tough for him because of the very hot conditions and we had a lot of tyre degradation at that point, but he still kept his head and finished in the points.

"I think his awareness of tyre management is much better than it was. We struggled a bit at the beginning of last year, mainly because of a lack of winter testing, but I think he was pretty clear on that by the end of the year.

"He definitely got qualifying sorted out from Monaco onwards, and got that progression you expect with each new set of tyres. Often with a rookie you will find that is not happening straight away, but by Monaco he had that pretty well fixed."

Kvyat's speed was obvious last year. He outqualified his more experienced team-mate, Jean-Eric Vergne, more often than not, and was particularly impressive on Saturday in Austria and at his home event in Sochi. But the races never seemed to go as smoothly.

True, the early-season unreliability of the STR9 hurt both drivers, but Vergne seemed to race better once the team got on top of that, while Kvyat rarely strung a grand prix together in the same way.

However, Key reckons some of Kvyat's race performances were outstanding last season; they just weren't obvious to the watching world.

Speed at Sochi was one of several indicators of the Russian's raw talent © LAT

"No one ever saw this, but he did a fantastic race at Monza," Key reveals. "He started at the back, because of an engine penalty, and we said to him, 'We want to score points, so we are going to have to do something completely different to everyone else and you are going to have to work your way through the traffic'.

"That is exactly what he did, but because there was a lot of action at the front, nobody ever noticed.

"He worked his way all the way through the traffic, really quick, did 30 laps on the same set of tyres.

"Then he put on the softer tyre at the end and he was approaching a big gaggle of Force India, McLaren and Raikkonen's Ferrari, and he was catching them at two seconds a lap, so you thought he was going to end up fifth.

"But then his brake disc exploded and he did the last two laps on three brake discs. We were gutted, and so was he at the end, but, at Monza of all places, to finish on three brake discs was amazing. He came in and said, 'I have just performed a miracle'.

"Austin was an identical situation, with his second engine penalty. Because he knew what he had to do and the mindset was right, he was able to control his tyres and all the rest of it.

"Again he came up to a group of cars, and then he got a bit of debris stuck in his front wing and had to pit to change it. That was predicted to be about seventh - where Vettel was - so that was another outstanding race.

"Like many races last year we didn't get results out of it, but if you look at race plots and look at those two races - particularly Monza - you think, 'Jeez he was flying'."

Monza performance impressed Toro Rosso, although brake failure ruined his race © LAT

These performances were hidden from general view, but not from Red Bull, which naturally assesses the absolute minutiae of its drivers' race weekends.

The reason it was minded to make Max Verstappen a grand prix driver so soon was because of what it considered outstanding performances in F3, coupled with a perfect attitude and approach to racing.

Kvyat displayed similar qualities in a higher-pressure environment at Toro Rosso last season, so is considered 'ready' for Red Bull's A-team.

But that doesn't mean he is ready. After all, this is not what Red Bull planned, and there's every chance it could be too much too soon for Kvyat. Key concedes his former charge would have benefitted from another season at Toro Rosso to "consolidate everything he has learned so far", but believes he has the skills to thrive in what Kvyat himself calls a "less than ideal" world.

"Year one is always a big learning process," says Key. "Equally, given his natural ability and that he is devoid of ego, I think he will settle in well. He's not locked into any set of beliefs, and I think he will learn well from Ricciardo as well.

"The pressures are different, because the expectation is a little bit higher. Dani had a good ride last year - he came in as an unknown quantity and did a good job - but now he has stepped into an environment where expectation is extremely high, but I think he is the right character to deal with that.

"I think he is very good for Red Bull - he is a very good long-term prospect. I suspect he will run pretty well."

So does Red Bull. Now it's down to Kvyat to deliver, and prove to those who weren't paying much attention in the first place that they probably should have been.