Daniil Kvyat says that he spent his year away from racing in Formula 1 focusing on his mental state after a turbulent couple of years with Red Bull and Toro Rosso, and is confident ofไ impressing when he returns to a seat in 2019.

Having been demoted from Re🍷d Bull’s senior team one year earlier, Kvyat was dropped twice mid-season by Toro Rosso in 2017 before leaving the Red Bull programme after his last appearance at the United States Grand Prix.

Kvyat joined Ferrari in a development role for 2018, but was confirmed on Saturday to be returning to Toro Rosso as a race driver in 2019, with Red Bull advisor Heꦦlmut Marko feeling the Russian had become “far more mature” in his year ou🐷t.

Marko also said he was sure Kvyat had got on top of the mental challenꦜges he struggled with last year, with his form having nose-dived through his f♋inal season with Toro Rosso.

Kvyat said he had spent mu♏ch of his year out working on his mental state and getting himself in a “good men𓃲tal window,” giving him plenty to be positive about ahead of his comeback.

Asked if he felt he was in a better place now than 12 months ago, Kvyat said: “Well, talking about better place, it’s hard tꦛo say.

“One thing I know for sure is that I’m very positive now,❀ very happy to be back. But you cannot be happy forever. You h💃ave to acknowledge there is a lot of work ahead.

“I’ve been working on mꦆyself a lot this year. It’s very important I think to be in a good mental window with yourself, and this year, it’s exactly what I was focusing on, even though some days it wasn’t certain that I was going to be coming back.

💧“Once I knew,♔ I was confident that it was going to be very positive.”

Kvyat also thanked Ferrari for its support and help📖 after his year at Maranello in a reserve and development role. 

“I obviously chose to🅠 go to Ferrari as a development driver last year. I’m very plea🌳sed with how it went,” Kvyat said.

“Obviously a big thanks to Ferrari and [team principal] Maurizio Arrivabene. They were very suppor🧸tive to me. They were very helpfu🦄l.

“I know that my job has been helpful, and it was about development, a lot of things on 🅠the simulator, work൲ing on the car also during a race weekend, so we were supporting the race team from the factory trying to find the correct setup and optimise the setup how they wanted.

“Usually it’s always worked very well while I was 🦹there, and I really enjoyed it to be honest.

“I know it’s not the same🎃 as racing, but also it makes me very happy to be racing back in Fo💖rmula 1.”