Vettel doesn’t mind who new team-mate will be

Red Bull’s search for a new driver has continued throughout the summer break.

It had been expected that Red Bull Racing would announce who would be joining their driver line-up for 2014 by the end of August, but from the outside looking in, the team do not appear to be any closer to naming their new driver than they were several weeks ago.

Following Mark Webber’s announcement that he was leaving Red Bull and Formula One at the end of the 2013 season, Red Bull have primarily been linked to two drivers.

Red Bull development driver and current Toro Rosso racer Daniel Ricciardo and 2007 Formula One World champion and current Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen.

Ricciardo’s team-mate at Toro Rosso Jean-Eric Vergne was briefly also linked to the seat, but he was eventually ruled out as he didn’t offer as much experience as his Australian counter-part.

Meanwhile Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso has also been linked with a sensational switch to the team. Whilst all parties have failed to confirm that talks have been held, with Ferrari denying talks have taken place, the media insist that Alonso does hold a get-out clause with Red Bull and is being considered by Red Bull as a possible replacement.

The Alonso link of course goes against everything that has come out via Alonso’s management team, but according to the Daily Mail at least it is still very much a possibility.

But who does Vettel want as his team-mate, he’s already stated to the media that he has a better relationship with Raikkonen over Alonso so would pick him if it came down to those two. But those comments were made to the media and not to his team.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner doesn’t actually believe that Vettel has a preference, instead the German is confident that he will beat whoever is sat in the next door garage.

‘I don’t think he minds to be honest, I don’t think Sebastian has any concerns about going up against any driver, and he hasn’t voiced a preference either way.

‘He knows Kimi, he knows Daniel. Both are very quick drivers and would represent a challenge for him, but he has not looked to influence the team in any way as to which way we should be looking.’ Horner told Sky Sports.

With Red Bull Racing seen very much as Sebastian Vettel’s team some would argue that the triple F1 World Champion is not bothered by who is team-mate is set to be because he knows whoever it is, he will still remain the teams number one.

However Horner insists that wouldn’t be the case.

‘Both drivers get the same opportunity, It’s down to what they do on the track that determines who is the lead driver or not, and the lead driver at any given time is the one who has the most points.’