As confirmed last week Daniel Ricciardo will partner Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull Racing for the 2014 season. Great opportunity for Ricciardo but lets just hope he does a Lewsi Hamilton (2007) and not become a Grosjean (playing support to Raikkonen). See my last week's post below:
In a few days Red Bull Racing will confirm Daniel Ricciardo as Mark Webber's replacement and the one to partner 3-time (almost 4) World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the 2014 F1 Championship. Personally I think this is a great move by RBR even though many people would have wanted Kimi Raikkonen to partner Vettel. The 4-man think tank of Dietrich Mateschitz, Helmut Marko, Adrian Newey and Christian Horner have decided to go with stability rather upsetting an already proven formula. Let's face it Kimi is one of the fastest drivers on the grid today along with Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton but don't think he will be what RBR want.
One of the main reasons for Vettel and RBR's success is the fact that Vettel has been faster than Webber but not by that much, meaning Webber always brought in the valuable Constructor points. This is something Massa has never been able to do. At the same time the team concentrated more on Vettel making him the defacto Number 1 in the team. While Ricciardo is quick and one to look out for, he will play the role Webber played and at the same time be groomed to take over once Vettel moves to Ferrari (which is inevitable). This will also ensure stability in the team.
Kimi coming in to the team would mean that not only would he start taking points off Vettel but come in the way of the Championship as well. I also don't see Kimi moving over for team orders or helping Vettel win a championship.
The most important part of this move is for Red Bull to prove that their driver program is reaping rewards. Since Vettel was promoted from Toro Rosso to RBR in 2009 none of the other drivers have managed to make an impact leave alone stay in F1 as part of their Red Bull Junior program. This would show that the Red Bull program is still capable of delivering top class drivers.
Ricciardo has rapidly moved up the motorsport ladder over the last couple of years. He won the Formula Renault 2.0 championship in only his third year of single-seater racing before winning the British Formula 3 Championship the following year. He moved on to the highly competitive Formula Renault 3.5 series next and lost out in the final round by just 2 points. He joined HRT for the second half of 2011 before moving to Toro Rosso. He has impressed this year which has resulted in being called up to RBR.
This is a great opportunity and am sure he will grab it with both hands. It might take him 5-6 races to get up to speed but will give Vettel a run for his money after that. Good to see teams investing in young drivers rather than going for established stars.
So expect an announcement as early as Thursday on this.
In a few days Red Bull Racing will confirm Daniel Ricciardo as Mark Webber's replacement and the one to partner 3-time (almost 4) World Champion Sebastian Vettel in the 2014 F1 Championship. Personally I think this is a great move by RBR even though many people would have wanted Kimi Raikkonen to partner Vettel. The 4-man think tank of Dietrich Mateschitz, Helmut Marko, Adrian Newey and Christian Horner have decided to go with stability rather upsetting an already proven formula. Let's face it Kimi is one of the fastest drivers on the grid today along with Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton but don't think he will be what RBR want.
One of the main reasons for Vettel and RBR's success is the fact that Vettel has been faster than Webber but not by that much, meaning Webber always brought in the valuable Constructor points. This is something Massa has never been able to do. At the same time the team concentrated more on Vettel making him the defacto Number 1 in the team. While Ricciardo is quick and one to look out for, he will play the role Webber played and at the same time be groomed to take over once Vettel moves to Ferrari (which is inevitable). This will also ensure stability in the team.
Kimi coming in to the team would mean that not only would he start taking points off Vettel but come in the way of the Championship as well. I also don't see Kimi moving over for team orders or helping Vettel win a championship.
The most important part of this move is for Red Bull to prove that their driver program is reaping rewards. Since Vettel was promoted from Toro Rosso to RBR in 2009 none of the other drivers have managed to make an impact leave alone stay in F1 as part of their Red Bull Junior program. This would show that the Red Bull program is still capable of delivering top class drivers.
Ricciardo has rapidly moved up the motorsport ladder over the last couple of years. He won the Formula Renault 2.0 championship in only his third year of single-seater racing before winning the British Formula 3 Championship the following year. He moved on to the highly competitive Formula Renault 3.5 series next and lost out in the final round by just 2 points. He joined HRT for the second half of 2011 before moving to Toro Rosso. He has impressed this year which has resulted in being called up to RBR.
This is a great opportunity and am sure he will grab it with both hands. It might take him 5-6 races to get up to speed but will give Vettel a run for his money after that. Good to see teams investing in young drivers rather than going for established stars.
So expect an announcement as early as Thursday on this.
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