Newey: “Red Bull always wanted a young driver”

Adrian Newey stated that Red Bull's choice for 2014 has always been to prefer a young driver rather than chasing an experienced driver like Kimi Raikkonen. Following the announcement of the signing of Daniel Ricciardo for 2014 as Sebastian Vettel's partner, Newey said he had pushed to sign a young driver, capable of being with the team long-term.

“We could have taken an experienced driver, someone with performance guarantees at a relatively well-known level, or we could have taken a much younger driver with the hope of developing him to a very high level,” said the technical director.

“We thought about the second option and concluded that of the younger drivers, Daniel is the most promising. From Red Bull's point of view it is positive because he is the driver that Christian and I consider to be the most promising within the Red Bull young driver programme”.

“The decision actually reminds me a bit of a similar situation I experienced when I was at WIlliams. Nigel Mansell was leaving the team and we needed someone to support Alain Prost. We could have confirmed Riccardo Patrese or taken a young driver called Damon Hill who was our test driver at that time. I think it's positive to bring new blood and give promising young people a chance."

Ricciardo said he was obviously delighted: “Next year I will be with a world champion team, probably the best team, and everyone will expect me to deserve it. I'm ready. I'm not here to race in tenth position, I want to get the best results for myself and the team."