Kvyat dreams of victory at Le Mans as well as switch to this class
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- Ludo van Denderen
A Lamborghini Urus. Daniil Kvyat suddenly gets a big grin on his face when he says: "a big one, purple. A purple car. It's quite cool, yes, I like it. It's really cool, I really enjoy driving it. It's honestly a great road car, I really enjoy it". The Russian has been competing for Lamborghini's debut factory team in the World Endurance Championship this season. Added bonus: as a factory driver, the former F1 driver was, of course, allowed to pick out a nice model Lamborghini in the Monaco showroom.
Next weekend, Kvyat will be competing with Lamborghini - the hypercar, not the Urus - in the most important endurance race of the year, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. An extremely expensive sports car brand or not, Lamborghini is by no means among the contenders for victory in France. "It was a bit expected," Kvyat said in an exclusive interview with GPblog.
"In a way that it's a new car, very limited testing, we came here against guys who have a lot of experience here already, so it's normal that we're catching up. It's not easy. I don't enjoy being in this position too much, so I'm very demanding to our guys in order to be very efficient."
Kvyat in rear of WEC with Lamborghini
The premier class in the WEC was, for many years, an exclusive party of Toyota, but in recent years, more and more constructors have come forward with their own hypercars. This season, for instance, factory teams BMW and Isotta Fraschini debuted alongside Lamborghini. All these teams have in common that in the first year with a hypercar in the WEC, they cannot (yet) make a fist against the huge competition from Ferrari, Toyota and Porsche, and others.
"We need to bring some upgrades, of course, the team knows what drivers want, but we know more or less the areas that we need to work on, and I think, I hope, we will be able to see exactly that those improvements and next upgrades that we're going to bring."
Years maybe? "I hope not, because I want to win sooner than that, but we have to be realistic this year. We need to be very efficient in terms of what we're going to try, what we're going to put on the car. But then next year, hopefully the step needs to be really big, and hopefully the feedback is quite clear, and I hope we can really make that step."
Kvyat has a dream after F1 and WEC
For Daniil Kvyat, Lamborghini is currently the only project he is committed to. There are 'only' eight races in the WEC championship this season, so in principle Kvyat has time to compete in another class as well. During an interview with GPblog in 2023, the former Red Bull Racing driver said he would like to do Formula E or IndyCar alongside WEC. For now, that has not materialised.
On that, a year later, he says: "I wouldn't mind, but honestly, I'm quite happy with the program here, at the moment, there's not a lot of races here, but they are all quite intense, it's long races, and if there will be a good opportunity to do a double program somewhere else, without compromising one or the other, I will definitely look into it. I did a NASCAR race this year in Austin, already, in Xfinity [Series], so we'll see. We'll see what, if I can extend it a bit more."
NASCAR is a different sport, totally unlike F1 or WEC. That is precisely what makes the American class so attractive to Kvyat. "Because it's different. It's a very different world, very different people to deal with. I hope someday I can get also a good opportunity there. It would be a great challenge to try and be successful in NASCAR for sure. If there will be other opportunities in more directions of, let's say, Formula 1, then I will look into it. For the moment, internally, I'm always talking with people and if there will be interesting proposals, for sure, I will look into it."