MOTORSPORT: Red Bull F1 set for Bathurst 12 Hour

One of Daniel Ricciardo’s first roles in his return to Red Bull Racing is likely to be at the 2023 Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour, where the eight-time Grand Prix winner is set to jump behind the wheel of a 2011-model RB7 F1 car for demonstration runs on the famed circuit.

Full details of the track running aspect and activation are yet to be confirmed, however, the scream of the Renault RS27 V8 powerplant is sure to be a major draw for the event, which is scheduled for February 3-5.

The RB7 swept all before it during its championship campaign, with Sebastian Vettel claiming the World Driver’s Championship and Mark Webber claiming third in the final standings, while the outfit also secured the Manufacturer’s title.

A feature of Vettel’s 11 wins throughout the season was victory from pole position at Albert Park’s Australian Grand Prix, while a highlight for Webber was winning the season finale in Brazil.

The occasion won’t be the first time a modern F1 car has lapped the famed Mount Panorama circuit, after Jenson Button and Craig Lowndes took on the track in 2011 for a Vodafone-McLaren publicity stunt.

Unofficially, Button set a benchmark time that day of 1:48.88sec, some 10sec better than the official lap record time of 1:59.29, which was set by Christopher Mies in an unrestricted Audi R8 GT3 during the Challenge Bathurst event in 2018.

After a somewhat low-key return this year, the announcement is a significant win for the Bathurst 12 Hour.

“Oracle Red Bull Racing are the current Formula 1 World Champions, just to have them at the event is a privilege, but to know that the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 car will be lapping Mount Panorama will be something else,” said Shane Rudzis, Bathurst 12 Hour Event Director.

“This will be a spectacle like nothing we’ve seen at the 12 Hour before and takes the event to an entirely new level.

“This will be the best opportunity in 2023 for Australian F1 fans to get up close and personal with F1 machinery and an even rarer opportunity to see a Formula 1 car lap Mount Panorama.”

The announcement follows from confirmation that seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi will make his Bathurst debut aboard a star-studded line-up from BMW, while Mercedes-AMG has revealed its first major entry, with a Triple Eight Race Engineering-prepared, Supercheap Auto-backed machine for Shane van Gisbergen, Broc Feeney and factory ace Maximilian Götz.