Category: Toro Rosso

Speaking at the FIA’s Thursday press conference ahead of this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix, new Red Bull signing Daniel Ricciardo responded to a suggestion that he could use Mick Dundee’s knife to help his relationship with Sebastian Vettel by saying, “I’ll be right.”

Red Bull’s other Australian, Mark Webber, has faith in Daniel too. “Daniel will handle it fine. He knows how to handle himself so he’ll be OK,” said Mark.

As you might expect Daniel was the focus of several questions during the press conference and after the break we’ve got all the comments relating to the 24-year-old Aussie.

[Pic: Toro Ross/Getty Images]

Day two of testing at Silverstone overnight was very fruitful for the Red Bull family. In the morning session Daniel Ricciardo drove for Toro Rosso and set the quickest time of the day (1:32.972). In the afternoon session he swapped cars, suited up for Red Bull Racing and posted the third fastest time of the day (1:33.187).

We can’t recall another time where a driver has tested two different F1 cars on the same day. Similarly, seeing Daniel’s name on the lap charts twice is a bit of a novelty.

Splitting Daniel’s two times was an impressive F1 debut for Carlos Sainz Jr in the Toro Rosso (1:33.016). The 18-year-old later described it as the “happiest day” of his life. That feeling may only last 24 hours, though, he’ll be driving for Red Bull later tonight.

Ricciardo’s status as a current F1 driver meant he was restricted to tyre testing as prescribed by Pirelli, whereas teams can make more changes to their cars when the nominated young drivers are at the wheel.

Clearly this was a big day for Daniel who hopes to be promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull at the end of the year. According to Christian Horner it’s a fight between Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen for the vacant seat.

Not long after Daniel set his fastest lap in the RB9 he had a minor off, but there was no damage done. Speaking afterwards the 24-year-old Australian said: “I did quite a few laps this afternoon, so I’m happy with that. I had a small off but otherwise it was a trouble-free day.

“It was a good opportunity to get behind the wheel and experience two different beasts today. In terms of the inevitable speculation, I think this test is something for Red Bull to look at, but there’s still the rest of the season with Toro Rosso to do, so I’ll switch my focus back to that and won’t get too caught up in any rumours.”

More importantly perhaps is the reaction from the team. Andy Damerum, RBR Race Engineering Co-ordinator, later said: “Daniel had only about 45 minutes to swap over from his morning tyre test to driving our car, a completely different machine, but he was up to speed very quickly. As ever his feedback was exemplary and he gave us a lot of information to go through.”

[Pics: Red Bull/Getty Images]

Daniel Ricciardo will drive a Red Bull Racing RB9 tomorrow when Formula 1 hits the test track at Silverstone for the commonly referred to young driver tests.

This has come about due to a change in conditions from the FIA which will allow all teams to test new Pirelli tyres with their F1 drivers. The new tyres will be introduced at the Hungarian Grand Prix (28 July).

The test program runs for three days and for all the morning sessions Red Bull has announced its young drivers will participate. For the afternoon sessions Ricciardo will be first up, with Mark Webber to drive on Thursday and Sebastian Vettel to step in for Friday’s test.

With no opportunity for Jean-Eric Vergne to test with Red Bull at this test it is the clearest sign yet that Ricciardo is the Toro Rosso driver most likely to replace Mark Webber if Red Bull chooses to promote one of their junior drivers.

[Pic: Toro Rosso/Getty Images]

UPDATE 17 July: Red Bull has amended their schedule. António Félix da Costa will drive all day Wednesday and Thursday’s morning session. Daniel Ricciardo will hit the track on Thursday afternoon. Friday’s original schedule remains in place, which means Mark Webber can take the week off.