British Formula 3 champion Daniel Ricciardo is to make his Formula 1 testing debut with Red Bull Racing next month. Red Bull Racing has confirmed that the 20-year-old Australian will be its driver for the young driver tests that take place at Jerez, Dec. 1-3.
Ricciardo, a Red Bull protégé, dominated British F3 in his rookie season this year, having graduated to the championship from Formula Renault. His fellow Red Bull young driver, Brendon Hartley, will drive for Toro Rosso at the test, possibly along with another member of the energy drink company's talent development scheme.
"We will test Brendon Hartley and we will see if a second driver comes to join us from Red Bull for this test," team boss Franz Tost told AUTOSPORT.
The majority of teams will test drivers who have won F1 outings via success in other championships at Jerez. Ferrari is set to run the top drivers from Italian Formula 3 – as it did at Fiorano last winter. Williams will give Formula 2 champion Andy Soucek his prize test alongside its 2010 signing Nico Hulkenberg, and the departing BMW Sauber team will honor its commitment to give America's Alexander Rossi and Mexico's Esteban Gutierrez F1 tests as their reward for winning last year's Formula BMW World Final and European title, respectively.