Ricciardo gets his wiiiiiings
Tonight it has been confirmed on German TV that the Australian Daniel Ricciardo; currently driving for Torro Rosso; will be replacing Mark Webber as a race driver for Red Bull Racing in 2014.
This deal was not unexpected but will probably kill a lot of the driver speculation for 2014 including potential Alonso / Raikkonen moves.
Interestingly Adrian Newey has said that the promotion of Ricciardo to the senior Red Bull team reminds him of being at Williams in 1993 when a certain Damon Hill was promoted.
“We could have taken an experienced driver, somebody guaranteed to deliver to a relatively known level, or equally we could take on a much younger driver in the hope that they’ll develop to a very high level,”
“We looked at the latter option and concluded that of the younger drivers, Daniel is the most promising.
From Red Bull’s point of view that also fits well because the driver that Christian and I feel is the most promising is part of the Red Bull young driver programme.”
“The decision actually reminded me a little bit of a similar situation we had when I was at Williams. Nigel Mansell was leaving and we needed someone alongside Alain Prost. We could stick with Riccardo Patrese or take a punt on a young driver called Damon Hill who was our test driver at the time.”
“I think it’s good to bring young blood in and give promising drivers a chance.”