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Ricciardo confirmed as HRT driver for Silverstone
Well this will make it a bit interesting for us Aussies!
HRT - the new Minardi???
Daniel Ricciardo has been confirmed as an HRT driver, taking over Narain Karthikeyan's seat for the British Grand Prix.
Ricciardo, who is still a Red Bull junior driver, will make his F1 race debut at Silverstone next weekend alongside Tonio Liuzzi, with Karthikeyan staying on at the team as one of its "official drivers". Ricciardo has been testing the Toro Rosso during Friday morning practice all season and joins HRT through a "collaboration deal" between the two teams.
"It's a dream come true for me - for the first time on an F1 starting grid," he said. "I had to pinch myself a couple of times to be sure that it's real. I'm excited and can hardly wait to drive at Silverstone. It's a new challenge, a new experience, a new team, but I'm ready and will give of my best in any event."
HRT owner Jose Ramon Carabante said it was a milestone for his team to get a Red Bull driver in one of its cockpits and hinted at further tie-ups between the two teams.
"This agreement is a reward for all the hard work Hispania Racing has shown since we started in Formula One last year," he said. "We're proud that the Formula One World Champion team has trusted us in their effort of developing their drivers. Let's hope that this is just the start of a fruitful relationship."
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has overseen much of Ricciardo's career and earlier this year said he planned to get him in a race cockpit before 2012 is possible. HRT team principal Colin Kolles thanked Marko for making the deal happen.
"I'm happy to welcome Daniel to the team; I'm glad the team managed to conclude this deal together with Dr. Helmut Marko who deserves my personal respect," he said.
from:
http://en.espnf1.com/hrtf1/motorsport/story/53044.html
Comments
How is Ricciardo supposed to win out of this?
He hasn't been blowing them away on Friday; quick, yeah. But not OMG.
Algy-boy has managed to put a couple of really good drives in to keep himself afloat.
So he gets to sit in the WORST car on the grid. His options appear to be many:
- He can be shown up by his team-mate in a car he has never driven
- He can interfere with someone's race and ruin his career forever
- He can suffer mechanical failure and just be forgotten about
- He can understand what it is like to be lapped by everybody.
The trouble with these opportunities is that they are given to young guys who have built their careers to the point where they are winning everything. They are used to having the best, or nearly best car on the grid, and feeding off of the bread of success. Now it's time to jump into a pig of a car that cannot get out of its own way. After the first few laps of the race he has to drive around the outside of the corners to let everyone else through.
On the other hand, IF he can drive really, really well, then he may beat a Virgin or a Lotus, and that would generate an opportunity in the big time. If I was his manager, I would have been hanging around Renault. There are huge questions around Kubica; Petrov is very uneven, and RBR want Renault engines for a further term. Renault would be a much better option than Toro Rosso, or HRT. The latter is probably only doing this because RBR have agreed to bail them out for some period of time.
Gotta feel sorry for Karthikeyan.
(not counting last sentence)
What I'm saying is that driving for HST is almost certyainly going to do his career more harm than good, unless he manages to pull off a huge result.
Can anyone say A-N-T (Davisdson)? One shit drive for Minardi was all that it took to finish him for good.
He WILL be driving for Torro Rosso next year. We've seen the influence Marko has, and Daniel has speed.
I view it as work experience to a full time drive next year.
Meanwhile, Jos the boss was arrested for having attempted to run over his ex girlfriend with his car.......in 2009 he was already denounced for having beaten his ex wife.....
M$ still saying that he will still race for many years and he will try to beat Fangio's record of oldest woeld champion......:-):-)