The subs’ bench for Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso will be an all-Australasian affair for 2010, as the two teams confirm their reserve drivers: Australia’sDaniel Ricciardo and New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley. The two drivers, who are bothmembers of the Red Bull Junior Team, will alternate the reserve driver duties on a raceby race basis.
Daniel is the reigning champion of the British Formula 3 series. A native of Perth, the20-year-old made a name for himself when his racing career bought him to Europe.After competing in Formula Renault Italy in 2007, he moved to Formula Renault WestEuropean Cup in 2008 and won the title, by taking ten pole positions and eightvictories. He moved up a class in 2009 to the British Formula 3 Championship, wheresix wins and several points-scoring finishes saw him wrap up the Championship withtwo races to spare.
Ricciardo’s team-mate Brendon (20) hails from Palmerston North in New Zealand.After impressing in Formula Ford and the Toyota Racing Series on home turf, Brendonalso moved to Europe to progress his career. In 2006 he contested the EurocupFormula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup before winningthe Eurocup title with a round to spare in 2007. In 2008 he moved to the BritishFormula Three Championship where he finished third, before moving to the F3 EuroSeries last year.
A recent highlight for the two drivers was taking part in the 2009 end of season F1 testin Jerez. Brendon was at the wheel of the TR4 for Scuderia Toro Rosso, while Danieldrove the RB5 for Red Bull Racing for all three days. After an impressive test, Danieltopped the time-sheets. Both drivers displayed good pace and offered useful feedbackwhich aided the teams in their work ahead of the 2010 season.While the position of reserve driver can sometimes be seen as one of the less activeroles at the track, the position is far from ceremonial. Daniel and Brendon will sit-in onthe briefings and debriefs, attend driver meetings and familiarise themselves with theeveryday workings of the garage and pit-wall. They will also fulfil marketingcommitments for the teams.
