Kvyat given 'just words' not reason for decision

May 13 (GMM) Daniil Kvyat was stoical but admittedly unhappy on Thursday as the world's media pressed him about being dropped by Red Bull.

"First of all, I think the word 'dropped' is a bit heavy because I still get quite a good chance with Toro Rosso," said the Russian.

But he did admit that the decision had left him unhappy.

"Just words," he is quoted as answering by the French broadcaster Canal Plus, when asked what explanation Dr Helmut Marko had given him during a 20-minute phone call that he says interrupted an episode of - aptly - 'Game of Thrones'.

"Of course it was a confusing decision but I could do nothing but accept it," said the 22-year-old.

The timing of the decision came just after Sochi, where he ran into the Ferrari twice, but Sebastian Vettel thinks it actually has nothing to do with that.

"I learned that it (Red Bull's decision) had been decided before (Russia)," Vettel, Red Bull's former quadruple world champion, said on Thursday.

Kvyat agreed: "I think it's been for a while they (Red Bull) wanted this and the opportunity came and the decision was taken."

That decision, of course, was to pluck the teen F1 sensation Max Verstappen out of the 2017 'silly season' and sign him up to a long-term contract.

But Kvyat says he also had a valid 2017 deal.

"I cannot be happy with the decision, in the way it came, in the timing, because the team deal was there and suddenly it's completely changed," he said.

Kvyat told Italian television: "It was pretty obvious it was going to happen, but I think it happened fairly early, just after the first podium of the season.

"I must say that it was not nice," he admitted.

Indeed, Kvyat on Thursday removed all reference to Red Bull on his Twitter and Facebook profile pages, as they now reads only: 'Formula 1 driver DK26'.

2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen hinted that, in F1, there is always more to the story.

"Basically it's not my business," he said. "Max Verstappen would not get a place at Red Bull if he didn't deserve it. But I don't and you don't know the whole story. Very few people will and ever will, and that's the way it is in F1."