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Max Verstappen has already been behind the wheel of a Red Bull this year, admittedly in slightly different conditions to what he'll experience this weekend...

So what's your take on the swapping shenanigans at Red Bull? Were they right to demote Daniil Kvyat? He was on the podium just two races ago but then it is their team, Red Bull are surely within their rights to do whatever they want?

Also, if you could swap any driver to any other team, who would they be and why?

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Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Barcelona

Image source, Getty Images

“Daniil Kvyat put up a feisty performance in the official news conference on Thursday, doing his best to see the positives in Red Bull’s decision to drop him to the junior team and promote Max Verstappen. But it was clear from the way his voice hovered on the edge of breaking that it hurt. Even Red Bull team boss Christian Horner admitted the decision was ‘harsh’ - even if, as he pointed out, the Russians struggle to live with team-mate Daniel Ricciardo had become ‘a pattern’. 

"Kvyat said he had not yet been given a proper explanation, but he added: ‘I will try to give as loud an answer as possible on the track. I come back to a team I really like a lot and which U feel was giving me a really warm welcome. The atmosphere is very positive and the goals are clear.’ His career is undoubtedly hanging by a thread, even if Red Bull are not putting it that way. ‘He takes some solace from the fact that any other driver who hasn’t succeeded in Toro Rosso or Red Bull Racing hasn’t been retained,’ Horner said. 

"‘If we didn’t believe in him as a talent, he wouldn’t have been retained. Putting him in Toro Rosso will enable him to recover his confidence and form and will enable him to evaluated from there.’”

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Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Barcelona

“Phew. Where to start with this weekend. One of the many joys of Formula 1 is its propensity to produce a good story but even for F1 the last couple of weeks have been pretty extreme. As if the world champion facing a 43-point deficit after just four races was not enough, Red Bull upped the ante ahead of the start of the European season this weekend by swapping Max Verstappen and Daniil Kvyat. Throw in the pressure building on an under-achieving Ferrari team and we have quite a weekend ahead of us in Spain.”

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It is perhaps somewhat fitting that Daniil Kvyat found out that he was to demoted by Red Bull while he was in the middle of watching an episode of Game Of Thrones.

In the show, no character - big or small - is safe from suddenly and unexpectedly getting the chop.

That, in essence, is what happened to Kvyat, who will this weekend race for Red Bull's junior team Toro Rosso, with Max Verstappen taking his place in the 'throne' of the senior team.

We've all been desperate to see what the 18-year-old can do in a faster car. Will he make an immediate impression?

Image source, Getty Images