MOTORSPORT: Red Bull plucks Aussie schoolboy

An Australian schoolboy has been selected in Red Bull’s junior program that groomed Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel for Formula 1 and will start testing in Europe this week – as will two other Aussie open-wheeler hopes.

Red Bull will place 15-year-old Luis Leeds, of Melbourne, in British Formula 4 racing next year with the Arden Motorsport team founded by Red Bull Racing (RBR) F1 boss Christian Horner.

Leeds’ first outing with Arden will be in a two-day test this week at Valencia in Spain.

Leeds contested the inaugural Australian F4 Championship this year, but the highlight of his career was winning the F4 race at the reborn Mexican Grand Prix six weeks ago.

He already has raced in Germany, the United States, Asia and New Zealand, where he scored a Formula Ford victory.

In Australia he has driven for Melbourne-based team DREAM – an acronym for Dean Randle Engineering and Motorsport.

Randle is a former Australian sports sedan champion and his son, Thomas, 19, runner-up in the F4 championship, will test at Valencia too with British Formula 3 team T-Sport.

Australia’s first F4 champion, Jordan Lloyd of Toowoomba, who has just turned 20, also is to test in Spain – for top British F3 team Carlin, with which Ricciardo and James Courtney have raced.

Lloyd’s test is part of his reward for winning the F4 title with Adelaide-based Team BRM – an acronym for Bronte Rundle Motorsport. Lloyd also has $150,000 in prizemoney from that success, but it is not clear yet whether he will use it to pursue a career overseas or at home.

Leeds was one of three teenagers Red Bull added to its junior development squad on Friday. The others, who will race in F3 in Europe, are Niko Kari, a 16-year-old from Finland, and Sergio Setta Camara, a 17-year-old Brazilian.

The Red Bull junior program’s poster boy has been Sebastian Vettel, the German who has won four world titles – with RBR in 2010-13 – and 42 GPs yet is still only 28. He is now Ferrari’s top driver.

West Australian Daniel Ricciardo is another of the Red Bull scheme’s graduates and won three GPs with it last year after succeeding fellow Australian Mark Webber in the team.

Others to come through the squad have been Russian Daniil Kyvat, now Ricciardo’s RBR teammate, 18-year-old Dutch wonderboy Max Verstappen and Spaniard Carlos Sainz Junior. The latter pair race for Red Bull’s second F1 team, Scuderia Toro Rosso.

This year Red Bull has supported New Zealander Dean Stoneman in Europe, while another Kiwi, Brendon Hartley, a winner of the Le Mans 24-Hour in France in June, was a contemporary of Ricciardo’s in the Red Bull squad.

Leeds, who began karting at 11, said F1 was his goal but, while he has youth on his side, that is still a long way off.

“I know that the level of competition [in Britain next year] will be much higher, but at least the cars will be the same as what  I’ve raced this year, so I can take what I have learnt here and make use of it,” Leeds said.

Arden Motorsport has competed in various European categories for almost two decades. It had great success in the days of Formula 3000 and more recently has taken New Zealander Mitch Evans and Kyvat to GP3 titles.

The series Leeds will contest next year – officially called the Motor Sports Association (MSA) Formula Championship – starts at the famous Brands Hatch circuit on the first weekend of April.

Ricciardo turns it on for fans in Perth
Daniel Ricciardo thrilled his home fans at the Perth Speed Fest yesterday, driving two 2011 Red Bull RB7s.

The first of the V8-powered F1 cars failed after one run on the Perth Motorplex drag strip and Ricciardo switched to the other for his final run, on which he was beaten by a drag car.

Craig Glassby’s top alcohol funny car dashed down the 400-metre strip in 9.054 seconds to the RB7’s 10.818s, but Ricciardo’s burnouts were a big winner with the crowd.

He had done a demonstration in central Perth on Saturday.

John Bannon the ‘father’ of F1 in Australia
John Bannon, the former South Australian premier who died yesterday, aged 72, was the man who signed the deal with Bernie Ecclestone to bring F1 to Australia with the start of grand prix racing in Adelaide in 1985.

The City of Churches hosted the GP until 1995 and is still fondly remembered by the F1 community for its superb presentation and atmosphere.

Bannon recently attended a lunch of Adelaide’s GP management that celebrated the 30th anniversary of F1 coming to the SA capital.