MOTORSPORT: F1 drive a 21st birthday present

Ricciardo in F1 cockpit for first time this year
Australia's Formula One driver-in-waiting Daniel Ricciardo got the perfect 21st birthday present this week -- a surprise outing in an F1 car at one of the sport's iconic circuits.

British-based Ricciardo, from Perth and already the official reserve driver for Red Bull Racing and its smaller sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso, turned 21 on Thursday.

On Wednesday he got a phone call from RBR's Milton Keynes base, just 10 minutes from his apartment, to drive an F1 car the next day at Silverstone, venue for next week's British Grand Prix.

It wasn't in this year's RB6 but an older model with a Cosworth engine rather than the Renault motor in the cars raced this season by fellow Australian Mark Webber and young German Sebastian Vettel. The purpose of Ricciardo's F1 outing was to film a promotional video.

"It was really last-minute, but a terrific birthday present," Ricciardo said.

While it was the first time he has driven an F1 car this year, he topped a major three-day F1 test attended by 22 aspiring grand prix drivers at Jerez in Spain last December. He also did two days of straight-line testing for RBR last year.

Official F1 testing is strictly limited these days as part of efforts to contain costs but Ricciardo spends a lot of his time "driving" RBR's F1 simulator at the Milton Keynes base.

However, his primary job this year is racing in the World Series by Renault -- also known as the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship (for 3.5-litre Renault-engined openwheelers) -- with French team Tech 1.

The drive was arranged and funded by Red Bull as part of its junior driver development program.

After 22 race wins in Europe in the past three years, Ricciardo will be chasing more success in Hungary this weekend. He won the prestigious Monaco round of the World Series by Renault in May, less than two hours before Webber won the GP there.

Ricciardo has had three other podium finishes and four pole positions at the nine Renault series races already run this season. He is second in the championship to more experienced Russian Mikhail Aleshin, 66 points to 75, with hot conditions expected for this weekend's two races in Budapest.

Ricciardo is the reigning British Formula Three Champion and in 2008 won the Formula Renault West European Championship and was a narrow runner-up in that category's Eurocup.

Ricciardo and his teammate at Tech 1, New Zealander Brendon Hartley, seventh with 40 points, have steered the French outfit to a 24-point lead in the World Series by Renault's teams championship -- a title it has won twice before.

Britain's Carlin Motorsport, for which Ricciardo won last year's British F3 crown, is second in the World Series by Renault and fields Aleshin, who has won three races this season.

Another point back is Czech team ISR Racing, whose Argentinean driver Esteban Guerrieri also is a three-time winner this season.

Guerrieri has 58 points in the championship, Estonia's Sten Pentus -- with Britain's Fortec Motorsport -- 44 and France's Nathanael Berthon -- of Italy's Draco Racing -- 43.

One of 1992 F1 world champion Nigel Mansell's sons, Greg, is 16th in the World Series by Renault drivers' championship with just nine points.

After Hungary the championship will take a two-month break before the remaining rounds -- each with two races -- at Hockenheim in Germany, Silverstone in Britain and Barcelona in Spain.

"Budapest is a circuit I really like -- I've had good results there before (in the smaller Formula Renault in 2008)," Ricciardo said. "I think the season finishing at Barcelona is also good as its one of my favourite circuits.

"Looking at the calendar there are some of my favourite circuits coming up and I have more experience in the series now, so I think the second half of the year could be even better for us than the first half.

"Being second in the championship at the halfway point is a pretty good position to be in. We're in a strong position for the rest of the season. I think I'm doing a fairly good job to be as competitive as I am in my first year.

"A lot of the front runners have done two or more seasons at this level, so it's pretty competitive.

"I've made a few mistakes, and the team have made a few mistakes as well.

"We haven't had the best pit stops on some occasions and a few other things.

"Hopefully we can build on our progress so far and take it up to that next level, which we need to do if we want to win the championship."

New car on way for Webber, new twist on Turkish fiasco
Red Bull Racing is racing to finish a brand new RB6 for Mark Webber to race at next week's British GP after the spectacular Valencia crash last Sunday in which the car he drove to victory in the Spanish and Monaco GPs was wrecked.

And this week RBR team principal Christian Horner shed some more light on that infamous collision between Webber and teammate Sebastian Vettel in the Turkish GP on May 30.

In the press conference after that race, in which the Aussie was third and Vettel a non-finisher after they had seemed to be on the way to a one-two finish, Webber curiously told the media: "You guys (media) need to dig more, somewhere else."

In the five weeks since it had never become entirely clear what he was referring to there, but Horner may now have solved that puzzle.

The team boss told Britain's Autosport this week that "Mark had requested the lap before to ask Sebastian to back off a bit."

And, echoing a remark at the time by Dr Helmut Marko -- the Austrian ex-F1 driver and motorsport consultant to Red Bull tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz -- Horner added: "There was no way you could do that because of the McLarens (of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button) being right there (behind)."

Vettel had closed on Webber after having saved fuel earlier in the race, allowing him to run his engine at a higher rev limit than the Aussie at that point.

The revelation that Webber had wanted Vettel to back off is enlightening, but nothing is going to recoup the points RBR lost that day.

Horner said he was confident that incident had not caused long-term damage to the professional relationship between the team's drivers.

"We're fortunate that both our guys are mature, balanced individuals," he said. "Obviously emotions were running high on that Sunday, but they're both professionals.

"They are probably not going to be down the pub for a drink together, but they will continue to work professionally in the manner that they have done in the forthcoming races.

"They work for the team at the end of the day and they know what the rules are."

Power and Briscoe at The Glen, Ambrose at Daytona
It's a big weekend for the top Aussie racers in the US, with Will Power and Ryan Briscoe racing for Team Penske at the Watkins Glen road course in upstate New York and Marcos Ambrose back at Daytona in Florida driving his Toyota in NASCAR's Sprint Cup.

Power is leading the series again after the previous round in Iowa, while Briscoe has had pole position the past two years at The Glen and finished second there a year ago.

This weekend's ninth race of the 17-round IndyCar series begins a stretch of five road and street course races.

The excellent, informative, completely professional Penske Racing preview is here.

Meanwhile, Ambrose will take another major step in putting the Sonoma blunder of a couple of weeks ago behind him as NASCAR returns to Daytona mid-season for the 18th of its 36 Sprint Cup rounds.

Ambrose finished sixth at this round last year by avoiding a final-lap incident involving eventual winner Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch.

His best oval-track finish in the Sprint Cup remains fourth place at Talladega Superspeedway in April last year.

Thirteenth place at New Hampshire last weekend was a good first step for Ambrose in regaining credibility in NASCAR ranks after squandering a maiden Sprint Cup victory at Sonoma.

Image: danielricciardo.com

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