Red Bull had a decision to make following the announcement that Mark Webber would quit Red Bull and retire from Formula One at the end of the season.
The team has won both the drivers and constructors Formula One World Championships over the past three seasons.
Sebastian Vettel goes into the second half of the 2013 season as the favourite to win a fourth consecutive title, whilst Red Bull also lead the way in the constructors championship.
So how would Red Bull move into the 2014 season? Would Red Bull partner Vettel with hot favourite and 2007 Formula One World Champion Kimi Raikkonen? Or surprise the world of Formula One and engineer a move for Fernando Alonso from Ferrari? Or would they promote from within and give someone a chance from within their own Red Bull development programme, someone like Toro Rosso driver Ricciardo?
We’ve known the answer for quite a while but for some reason we’ve had to wait for the official announcement. Hardly surprising when the team is a walking media machine, but why choose a Monday night when most of the sporting world were pre-occupied with the football transfer deadline day and whilst the F1 media were attending the film premier of the new movie ‘Rush’ ?
We’ll never get an answer for that, but the answer of who will drive for Red Bull next season is, as expected, Daniel Ricciardo.
‘He really deserves this graduation on merit, he’s a talented youngster, he’s got a great attitude and is very committed, In the end it was a logical choice for us. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said in a pre-recorded video press release.
‘We know Daniel is very quick and Sebastian is the best in the business at the moment, but I think people will be surprised at how quick Daniel is. It’s going to be very surprising to see what he is capable of next year.’
The Red Bull boss added: ‘There were some options that we hadn’t considered previously, but we came to the conclusion collectively that Daniel is the right man for both the medium- and long-term. He’s a very exciting prospect for the future.
