Ex-Red Bull driver calls Sebastian Vettel ‘professional screamer’ after public row

Sebastian Vettel branded Daniil Kvyat the “torpedo” in 2016 after the then-Red Bull driver’s actions almost caused a crash at that year’s Chinese Grand Prix.

The 2016 Chinese Grand Prix almost ended early for Sebastian Vettel, then racing for Ferrari, and Daniil Kvyat, driving for Red Bull.

The pair nearly made contact at Turn 1 when Kvyat shot up the inside of the Ferrari in an attempt to get past Vettel.

Forced to attempt to take avoiding action, Vettel launched into a furious tirade on the team radio after he made contact with then-teammate Kimi Raikkonen.

“Contact, I had no chance to avoid – I had the Red Bull coming up the inside like a mad man and I hit Kimi,” Vettel said at the time.

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While frustrating for the German, both Vettel and Kvyat would go on to finish on the podium.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg won the race, with Vettel in second and Kvyat in third, leading to a tense scene in the cooldown room before the podium ceremony.

“You came like a torpedo!” Vettel said.

 “I was racing”, Kvyat responded.

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“Yeah, racing, but if I keep going the same line, we’ll crash,” Vettel continued.

“But we didn’t crash,” Kvyat explained. 

“Yeah, you didn’t…” Vettel concluded.

Although almost seven years ago, Kvyat appears unwilling to let the row die, discussing the incident on the Track Limits podcast.

“At that time, I didn’t think much of it, to be honest – because it didn’t mean much to me,” Kvyat said when asked about the nickname.

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“Of course, the people, they are really easy to pick up [on trends], we had a discussion I think in the podium room.”

But when asked about what he would nickname Vettel in response, he replied with a smile: “A professional screamer or something like that, I don’t know…

“He likes to scream a lot on the radio, I think. Of course he is calmer [now] but when things were high stakes, he was screaming a lot!”