Thursday 15 May 2014

Ricciardo set to stay at Red Bull next season

(©Ben Johnston 2014)

Daniel Ricciardo looks set to stay at Infiniti Red Bull Racing in 2015 as the team have been extremely impressed with how the Australian has performed since his arrival at Milton Keynes at the start of this season following Mark Webber's decision to retire from Formula One at the end of last season.

In his opening race for the team Ricciardo out-qualified team mate and reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel as he started the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park Melbourne from the front row in second place. 

In Malaysia, Ricciardo started the race from fifth place but was unfortunate to have retired from the race.

In Bahrain the Australian started from 13th place on the grid and came through the field to finish the race in 4th place. He followed that up with another fourth place finish in China where he caught and overtook Vettel who went on to finish the race just behind Ricciardo in fifth place. 

Last time out in Spain, Ricciardo once again out-qualified Sebastian Vettel, start the race as the best of the rest from P3 behind the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The Australian also picked up his first ever Formula One podium finishing the race in third place behind the two Mercedes and managing to keep Vettel behind him.

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner stated: 'We have always believed in stability and continuity, he went on to say: 'Daniel is on a long-term contract with the team and it will be highly unlikely he will be anywhere else next year'.

Red Bull adviser, Dr Helmut Marko has stated that he is surprised at how quickly Ricciardo has matched the pace of Sebastian Vettel. Ricciardo is now just six points behind Sebastian Vettel in Drivers championship as the team prepare for the next race in Monte Carlo.

©Ben Johnston 2014

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