Strong impressions

Like the majority of Australian drivers, Ricciardo’s struggled in the early years of his career due to a lack of financial support. However, his talent was made obvious by strong campaigns in Formula BMW and he was eventually picked up by the Red Bull driver development programme that has funded his progression up the racing ladder.

This led to a stunning debut season in the notoriously competitive British F3 series in 2009 for Carlin where won the championship at his first attempt. That was followed up with an equally impressive season in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2010 where he finished a brilliant 2nd behind series veteran Mikhail Aleshin despite missing one race due to injury.

The 21 year old Australian made an even stronger impression on his debut in a Formula One car, taking part in last year’s rookie test session for Red Bull Racing in Abu Dhabi. The test took place just one week after the season ending Grand Prix at the same circuit, and Ricciardo set a lap time which was even quicker than World Champion Sebastian Vettel’s pole time just days before.

It didn’t take long for Red Bull Racing to announce Ricciardo as their reserve for the 2011 season and confirm that he would be taking part in Friday practice sessions for their sister team Toro Rosso in place of one of their regular drivers at each event.

Buemi and Alguersuari

Toro Rosso was late announcing the renewal of their agreements with Buemi and Alguersuari. The situation with Buemi became particularly confused mid-season when the team announced that he would be staying, but this was then denied by the Swiss driver who was rumoured to be in talks with Renault about the possibility of replacing Vitaly Petrov.

This can’t have helped their relationship, with Toro Rosso management starting to become openly critical of Buemi’s performance in later part of the season. Buemi’s contention is alleged to revolve around a contract clause which means that the team will be entitled to drop either driver mid-season if they failed to meet performance expectations.

Déjà vu?

Rumours that this clause would be utilised intensified following the announcement that Ricciardo would be replacing one of the race drivers in Friday practice sessions during Grand Prix weekends. Red Bull explained that this would help Ricciardo learn the F1 tracks before making his debut in 2012. However, the general paddock consensus is that the team are also gauging Ricciardo’s potential to help them make a more informed judgement over his future at the mid-way point of the season in light of the current test restrictions placed on teams.

It would not be unprecedented if Toro Rosso decided to promote Ricciardo into a race seat following the German Grand Prix. Another Red Bull development driver called Scott Speed was dropped by Toro Rosso mid-way through the 2007 season after consistently failing to impress. His replacement was Sebastian Vettel, with Toro Rosso explaining at the time that experience of actual race weekends would make Vettel better prepared for the 2008 season. Will history repeat itself?

However, an equally persistent rumour revolves around the future of Mark Webber at the main Red Bull Racing team. Webber became embroiled in a high profile conflict with Vettel during their battle for the 2010 championship and started the 2011 season in less than stellar fashion with a poor drive to 5th in Melbourne. If Red Bull were as impressed with Ricciardo as they claimed during last season’s rookie test, then surely replacing Webber with his young compatriot would be a logical move. Watch your back Sebastian Vettel.