Ricciardo to drive for HRT from British GP onwards

Ricciardo is expected to alternate drives with Liuzzi and Karthikeyan

Daniel Ricciardo, former test driver for Toro Rosso, has been confirmed as a race driver for HRT, starting from the British Grand Prix.

Oddly enough, the team statement did not explain which of their drivers would be replaced, suggesting that their 3 drivers may shuffle positions for the rest of the year.

The deal was made between Hispania and Dr. Helmut Marko, a senior figure in Red Bull Racing. This will further fuel rumours that Ricciardo has been hand-picked to race for Red Bull in several years.

The statement from the team reads as follows:

"Hispania Racing and Red Bull Racing signed a collaboration deal today which allows 
young Australian talent Daniel Ricciardo to join the Spanish team as its official 
driver.

The current Formula 1 World Champion team has shown trust in Hispania Racing’s 
project and has chosen José Ramón Carabante’s team as a support for the formation 
and development of its driver.

Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo, who was behind the steering-wheel in every first 
practice session of the eight grand prix up to now, will finally see his dream come 
true and become a Formula 1 race-driver starting from next week’s British Grand Prix.

Daniel Ricciardo joins Narain Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi as official drivers 
of the Spanish Formula 1 team, Hispania Racing."

This is practically a repeat of what happened last year with Hispania, where Sakon Yamamoto replaced Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok from the British GP onwards.

While it has not been yet confirmed, it is expected that Narain Karthikeyan will make way for Ricciardo, considering teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi’s domination over him this year. However, if this is the case, it is almost certain that Karthikeyan will still race at the inaugural Indian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo has test driven with Toro Rosso at every first practice session so far this year. He was poised to replace either Sebastien Buemi or Jaime Alguersuari. However, in recent races, the two have improved and are currently level on points. The fact that Ricciardo has been shipped off to HRT indicates that Toro Rosso is still pleased with the performance of their drivers.

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Ricciardo to drive in Friday Practice for Toro Rosso for 2011

Daniel Ricciardo will drive the Toro Rosso on Fridays in 2011

It has been announced today that Australian Daniel Ricciardo has been confirmed as the test and reserve driver for Toro Rosso for 2011, and will be driving the car during the Friday Practice sessions throughout the year.

Sebastien Buemi’s drive for 2011 had been in some doubt in recent days, after team boss Franz Tost complimented Jaime Alguersuari, but said that Buemi had “struggled” at times during the year. However, with this news, Alguersuari and Buemi now have confirmation of their contracts with Toro Rosso for next year.

Ricciardo finished 2nd in this year’s Formula Renault 3.5 Series, and won the 2009 British F3 championship last year. More recently, he finished 1st on both days of the young driver last week, setting the fastest lap of the Yas Marina circuit in the process.

Ricciardo dominates both days in young driver test

Daniel Ricciardo was by far the fastest man in the last two days in Abu Dhabi, as he topped the timesheets in both days of the young driver test on Tuesday and Wednesday. He was driving for the Red Bull team, and managed to beat Sebastian Vettel’s pole position lap by an entire second.

Dean Stoneman ran with aerodynamic equipment on his Williams

Tuesday

On the first day, Ricciardo was a second faster than Oliver Turvey, who was driving for McLaren. Antonio Felix de Costa, a 19-year-old for Force India, was third.

Esteban Gutierrez, who is Sauber’s test driver, was 4th, ahead of Dean Stoneman (Williams) and Mikhail Aleshin (Renault). Jean Eric Vergne was 7th for Toro Rosso, followed by Paul di Resta, who shared his car with Antonio Felix de Costa across the day.

Sam Bird was 9th for Mercedes, Jerome D’Ambrosio 10th for Virgin, Pastor Maldonado 11th for HRT, and Jules Bianchi was 12th for Ferrari. Rodolfo Gonzalez was 13th in the Lotus car, and 17-year-old Rio Haryanto (Virgin) was last, although he only completed 21 laps, only a quarter of many other drivers’ totals.

Daniel’s time of 1.39.616 was an excellent time, but it must be considered that the track was approximately 1.1 – 1.4 seconds faster than the Grand Prix there last weekend.

Times from Day 1:

Position		Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap		Laps
1		Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1.39.616			83
2		Oliver Turvey	McLaren	1.40.725	1.109		85
3		Antonio Felix da Costa	Force India	1.41.381	1.765		77
4		Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber	1.41.432	1.816		88
5		Dean Stoneman	Williams	1.41.522	1.906		70
6		Mikhail Aleshin	Renault	1.42.073	2.457		58
7		Jean Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1.42.489	2.873		93
8		Paul di Resta	Force India	1.42.736	3.120		28
9		Sam Bird	Mercedes	1.42.985	3.369		67
10		Jerome d’Ambrosio	Virgin	1.43.518	3.902		36
11		Pastor Maldonado	HRT	1.43.750	4.134		108
12		Jules Bianchi	Ferrari	1.43.894	4.278		59
13		Rodolfo Gonzalez	Lotus	1.44.924	5.308		83
14		Rio Haryanto	Virgin	1.49.439	9.823		21

Wednesday

The last ever Bridgestone tyres ever to be used in Formula 1

 

On Day 2, Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest time again, and this time was a second a lap faster than Vettel’s pole lap on Saturday. Sebastian’s time of 1.39.394 was beaten by Ricciardo, D’Ambrosio and Bird. Like last time though, the track has rubbered in hugely since last weekend.

Jerome D’Ambrosio was 7 tenths behind, followed by Sam Bird and Gary Paffett, who took over from Oliver Turvey in the McLaren.

Jules Bianchi improved to 5th, Sergio Perez got his first taste of the Sauber car he will be driving next year, and took it to 6th place. Paul di Resta was 7th, just ahead of Pastor Maldonado. Jean-Eric Vergne was 9th, but had his day interrupted by an engine problem with his Toro Rosso engine.

Yelmer Burrman shared the Force India with Di Resta, and took 10th position. Davide Valsecchi, driving the Hispania car, was 11th. He shared that car with Josef Kral, who was 13th. Luiz Razia was 12th for Virgin.

The Lotus car was at the back of the timesheets, in the hands of two different drivers, with Rodolfo Gonzalez going much faster than Vladimiar Arabadzhiev.

Wednesday was the last ever day of Formula 1 cars using the Bridgestone tyre. The Japanese company have made over 700,000 racing tyres for F1 in the last 14 years, and fitted the last set to the Lotus cars.

Times from Day 2:

Driver	Car	Best lap		Gap
Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1.38.102		0
Jerome d’Ambrosio	Renault	1.38.802		0.700
Sam Bird	Mercedes	1.39.220		1.118
Gary Paffett	McLaren	1.39.760		1.658
Jules Bianchi	Ferrari	1.39.916		1.814
Sergio Perez	Sauber	1.40.543		2.441
Paul di Resta	Force India	1.40.901		2.799
Pastor Maldonado	Williams	1.40.944		2.842
Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	1.40.974		2.872
Yelmer Burrman	Force India3	1.41.178		3.076
Davide Valsecchi	HRT	1.43.013		4.911
Luiz Razia	Virgin	1.43.525		5.423
Josef Kral	HRT	1.44.143		6.041
Rodolfo Gonzalez	Lotus	1.44.312		6.21
Vladimiar Arabadzhiev	Lotus	1.45.723		7.621

Ricciardo and Hartley are Red Bull reserves

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull has announced that their 2010 reserve drivers to be Daniel Ricciardo and Brendon Hartley. Both of these drivers are already in the Red Bull junior team.

Brendon Hartley

It is also understood that the two drivers will alternate reserve driver duties on a race-by-race basis.

Ricciardo impressed last year in the young driver test in December, while Hartley was reserve driver for both Red Bull and Toro Rosso last year.

When asked about this, Ricciardo said:

“It’s very exciting. It was an email I was hoping for since the test in December, but I wasn’t sure whether it would come at all. So, a big relief, but also very satisfying.”

“This will be a very good introduction to F1 – even though I won’t be driving the car, just to sit in on the briefings and do what the drivers do on a weekend is a good way to start learning. It’s all exciting and I’ll be busy, even though I’m not driving.”

At the moment, Australian Ricciardo is the reigning British Formula Three champion. In 200, he raced in the Italian Formula Renault series, and in 2008 won the Formula Renault West European cup, with 8 wins. Last year, he won the British F3 series with 2 races to spare. I’m expecting him to be in Formula 1 in the next few years, as his racing history shows he has a huge amount of talent.

Here’s a great overtake in the British F3 championship from Ricciardo:

And a burnout as well 🙂

Kiwi Brendon Hartley started in 2006 in Formula Renault 2.0. In 2007 he won the Eurocup title, and in 2008 raced in British F3 just like Ricciardo. Here, he finised 3rd, behind Jaime Alguersuari and Oliver Turvey. In 2009, he competed in the Formula 3 Euroseries. I don’t know as much about him, but he clearly deserves the opportunity to be in the Red Bull junior team.

Here’s a video I found about him when he competed in the famous F3 Macau Grand Prix:

As always, I love to see the new guys get a chance in Formula1. Both have lots of talent, and deserve this opportunity. Hopefully we can see them racing in F1 in a few years time.

2010 testing- December 3rd

Daniel Ricciardo ended the three-day test session in Jerez in scintillating form, as the Red Bull driver set the fastest time of the week to finish top of the timesheets. He completed 77 laps, and had a fastest lap of 1.17.418.

Conditions improved gradually across the day, so drivers who went out earlier were caught out.

Today, Ferrari gave the car to three drivers across the day: Pablo Sanchez, Daniel Zampieri and Zipoli. These were the top three finishers in this year’s Italian Formula 3 championship.

Toro Rosso allowed Mirko Bortolotti to drive 34 laps in the morning, before handding the seat over to Brendon Hartley.

There were many incidents over the day. Daniel Ricciardo’s car emitted a huge plume of smoke at the exit of the chicane, while JR Hildebrand had his runs spoiled with electronic problems. Paul di Resta and Daniel Zampieri both spun on track. All of these incidents (excluding Hildebrand) brought out the red flag for a while.

The unofficial times are as follows:

Pos Driver       Team            Time               Laps
 1. Ricciardo    Red Bull        1m17.418s            77
 2. Di Resta     Force India     1m18.736s  + 1.318s  53
 3. Paffett      McLaren         1m18.746s  + 1.328s  59
 4. Conway       Brawn           1m19.096s  + 1.678s  77
 5. Hulkenberg   Williams        1m19.226s  + 1.808s 106
 6. Baguette     Sauber          1m19.356s  + 1.938s  70
 7. Turvey       McLaren         1m19.358s  + 1.940s  32
 8. Ericsson     Brawn           1m19.382s  + 1.964s  49
 9. Di Grassi    Renault         1m19.602s  + 2.184s 123
10. Hildebrand   Force India     1m19.873s  + 2.455s  41
11. Sanchez      Ferrari         1m21.147s  + 3.650s  39
12. Zampieri     Ferrari         1m21.279s  + 3.861s  42
12. Zipoli       Ferrari         1m21.725s  + 4.307s  41
13. Hartley      Toro Rosso      1m22.493s  + 5.075s  50
15. Bortolotti   Toro Rosso      1m23.271s  + 5.853s  34
16. Tung         Renault         1m32.477s  + 15.059s  4