The 2013 Formula One Season

Is Daniel Ricciardo already determined the successor of parting Mark Webber? The german Sports-portal "Sport Bild Online" claims to know this. According to the portal Dietrich Mateschitz himself decided to promote a second junior-driver into the main team, after Sebastian Vettel who raced for Scuderia Toro Rosso the second half of F1-season 2007 and the F1-season 2008. Consequently both Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso were declined as a Red Bull-driver, but Alonso never was really discussed as Vettels' teammate. Räikkönen though seemed to be the driver with best chances for the second Red Bull-cockpit, according to the report however Daniel Ricciardo got the nod over the Iceman.
Sport Bild Online contacted Red Bull-advisor Helmut Marko and asked him about the issue. He answered that Red Bull won't announce anything prior to the Grand Prix of Spa. More information wasn't given, the portal commented that a dementi sounded differently.

For Daniel Ricciardo, driving for the Red Bull-juniorteam Scuderia Toro Rosso since 2012, it would be a great opportunity to show his speed. Being sponsored by Red Bull since 2008, he won the British Formula 3-championship in 2009 and finished 2nd in 2010's World Series by Renault. In 2011 he drove for Spanish team HRT, finishing 27th in the championship.


Germans only: You can find the original article here: [sportbild.bild.de]

What do you think? BILD is mostly a Boulevard-newspaper however they seem to have very good sources on such kind of information. I wouldn't wonder if it really was true.
Greetings
Silver

What a waste of a good seat. Ricciardo isn't mature for it yet, his performances aren't worthy of the chance for another few seasons.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

As most predicted - Red Bull have decided that Kimi would be too risky!

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

It makes perfect sense from a RedBull point of view, he's done his apprenticeship at Toro Rosso and he's an Aussie ready to be the new Webber.

But from an F1 fan's point of view, damn it's disappointing.

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Probably worth bearing in mind that Bild is quite prone to... let's call it 'tabloid' reporting. I've found that the various F1 journos on Twitter are quite reliable with their rumour service, and they're saying nothing at the moment.

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It's strange that pages like autosport.com, espn F1-news, bbc-news didn't mention this.
German page motorsport-total.com did as well as t-online.de (the page I found the "news" first). Only english page I found so far is this one:
[www.planetf1.com]-

So yeah, it's not save yet, but BILD has a surprisingly high hit-rate on such kind of information, e.g. being able to publish a transfer of a superstar in football (soccer for our american friends :-p) one day before it is officially announced.

What about the Peter Windsor latest tripe on twitter- Vettel to Ferrari in 2015, and an Alonso swap!?


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Just read that Raikkönen's manager said to a Finish newspaper that the negotiations for Raikkönen joining Red Bull have failed a while ago. This'd mean Ricciardo is the second Red Bull-driver in 2014 almost 100% certain.

[www.autosport.com]

I knew they'd bottle it.

So much for Horner saying he wanted the two best drivers available (though I suspect Horner has had sod all say in this).

Oh gawd, apparently Eddie Jordan has tipped Kimi for Ferrari. I know it's Eddie Jordan, but:

- Schumacher returning
- Schumacher retiring
- Hamilton to Mercedes

...

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Well he's got a 50/50 chance.

Kimi's either gonna be at Lotus next year, at Ferrari next year or... well leaving F1 again next year, and I can't see that yet.

Quite a tasty partnership if it does happen. Not quite up there with Vettel vs another world champion (just to see how he copes), but it's tasty enough for me!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2013 12:00AM by gav.

Kimi + Alonso... tasty...

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

Why would Kimi return to a team at which the experience he had, made him completely fall out of love with Formula One?

Eddie Jordan also made some suggestions about Felipe Massa which were well off the mark at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2009.

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Races: 163 - Wins: 23 - Pole Positions: 24 - Fastest Laps: 22
Season 9: Constructors' Champions

gav Wrote:
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> I knew they'd bottle it.
>
> So much for Horner saying he wanted the two best
> drivers available (though I suspect Horner has had
> sod all say in this).


What Marko wants, Marko gets. And obviously someone who could challenge his golden boy is a big no no.

Ferrari2007 Wrote:
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>Why would Kimi return to a team at which the experience he had, made him completely fall out of love with Formula One?

I don't necessarily think it was the Ferrari experience which made him "fall out of love with F1", I think F1 itself was enough to make him fall out of love with it. Ultimately Kimi loves driving and racing enough to put up with all the bullshit that goes with it, and since he likes winning best.. he's going to always home in on his best chance of winning. Whether Ferrari currently represents that... I don't know.