German media outlet Sport Bild is reporting that Daniel Ricciardo will replace Mark Webber at Red Bull Racing in 2014. It’s believed confirmation will come prior to next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
That would mean Red Bull has knocked back two world champions, Kimi Raikkonen and potentially Fernando Alonso, in favour of the 24-year-old Australian.
We expect current world champion Sebastian Vettel will be very pleased to have Ricciardo on the other side of the garage. Daniel will be a clear number two. It’s also a sign of faith in Red Bull’s own young driver program, with Ricciardo serving his apprenticeship at Toro Rosso, following the same pathway as Vettel.
It would appear that Ricciardo did enough to impress Red Bull Racing during his recent test with them at Silverstone. On Day 2 of the Silverstone test Ricicardo was fastest overall for Toro Rosso and backed that up with the third fastest time of the day driving for Red Bull.
In 2010 Ricciardo shared Red Bull’s reserve driver duties with Kiwi Brendon Hartley before becoming Toro Rosso’s sole reserve driver in 2011. Later that year Daniel made his Formula 1 debut with HRT at the British Grand Prix.
Since 2012 Ricciardo has partnered with Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne at Toro Rosso. Daniel has made 41 race starts in F1 collecting a total of 21 championship points, with a best finish of seventh (2013 Chinese Grand Prix).
We’ll bring your more news on this story as soon as we can.
[Source: sportbild.de (translated) | Thanks to Tom for the tip]
6 replies on “Rumour: Daniel Ricciardo gains promotion to Red Bull”
That is great news. Will be nice to have it all locked in place so he can just concentrate on driving now.
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Will believe it when I hear it from the horses mouth
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