Ex-F1 driver Kvyat to race Lamborghini LMDh in 2024

The former Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri and Red Bull racer has become a Lamborghini Squadra Corse factory driver for this season and will undertake testing duties of the new Lambo LMDh developed in conjunction with Ligier Automotive later in the year.

The Russian-born driver, who is competing under an Italian race licence, becomes the fourth driver to be named by Lamborghini for its LMDh programme to be run by the Iron Lynx team after Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli and Romain Grosjean.

Kvyat’s signing follows him joining the Prema team for an assault on the LMP2 class of this year’s WEC.

Prema is majority-owned by Iron Lynx parent company DC Racing Solutions and has been announced as a technical partner for the development and race programme with the Lambo LMDh.

The 2023 P2 WEC assault alongside Bortolotti and Doriane Pin is Kvyat's first sportscar campaign after a projected move into the series last season with Russian entrant G-Drive Racing failed to come to fruition after the team withdrew its entry following the Ukraine invasion.

#63 Prema Racing Oreca 07 - Gibson: Doriane Pin, Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Lamborghini Squadra Corse boss Giorgio Sanna said: “We are very excited to welcome Daniil to Lamborghini and believe he will be a strong asset to our LMDh project over the course of 2023.

“Daniil’s main role with us will be working closely with our engineers and mechanics on the prototype car which will debut next year and, given his vast experience in other racing categories, I have no doubt that he will play a crucial part in us hitting the ground running in 2024.”

Kvyat described joining Lamborghini as a “great honour”.

“Lamborghini is a very well-known Italian brand with a great history in the automotive world and, having grown up in Italy, this is an additional source of pride for me,” he said.

The LMDh, which will be powered by new twin-turbo V8 developed in-house by Lamborghini, is due to begin running in the summer.

Lamborghini and Iron Lynx have committed to running one car in the WEC and one in the IMSA endurance events, although the chances of the LMDh being ready for the opening round of the North American series next January have been played down.

Iron Lynx has stated it is too early to talk about how it will allocate drivers across its twin programmes.