Daniil Kvyat claims he rejected the offer to race for Ferrari just months before he was replaced at Red Bull by Max Verstappen.
Kvyat, who currently races in the World Endurance Championship, was demoted to Toro Rosso just four races into the 2016 season. The Russian driver originally made his debut with Red Bull's sister team in 2014 and replaced Sebastian Vettel when the German left for Ferrari at the end of that campaign.
Despite Red Bull struggling for pace in the 2015 season, Kvyat finished seventh in the Formula 1 championship ahead of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. However, following a crash at his home Grand Prix in Russia with Vettel, Red Bull were quick to replace him with future world champion Verstappen.
Speaking to the Track Limits podcast, Kvyat declared he had been offered the chance to replace Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari, to partner the man he replaced at Red Bull – Vettel. But he decided against making the switch, which he now may regret.
The 28-year-old said: "I was performing really well. And I just scored another podium for the team. And then at the time I had also a proposal to race for Ferrari to replace Kimi. That was going on behind the curtain.
"So, it was a very difficult situation also for me mentally to go back from being wanted by Ferrari and having seen the contract and then you go back to Toro Rosso suddenly and then you're like, it's not going very well suddenly."
Verstappen hit the ground running after making the step up, winning his debut race with Red Bull at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2016. Regardless of the Dutchman's success, Kvyat found his abrupt return to the less competitive Toro Rosso team to be a bitter pill to swallow.
He said: "I felt really betrayed at that moment. It was a stab in the back and that's life, you get stabbed in the back sometimes you know, it's normal.
"Now it's the past. I have another good career in racing so part of me of course is very thankful to Red Bull. The other part of me is still very unhappy with it."
