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Red Bull chief Adrian Newey has said that Daniel Ricciardo is the most promising driver they have and the move to give him a driver’s seat next season reminds him of Williams’ decision to bring in Damon Hill.
“Daniel is the most promising. From Red Bull’s point of view that also fits well because the driver that Christian and I feel is the most promising is part of the Red Bull young driver program. The decision actually reminded me a little bit of a similar situation we had when I was at Williams,” he said.
With Mark Webber set to retire at the end of the season, Red Bull had been on the look for a driver to replace the Aussie. Though big names like Kimi Raikkonen were considered, the race was eventually won by Ricciardo who came through the ranks at Red Bull young driver program.
“Since Mark announced his retirement, Christian [Horner] and I have been looking carefully at the driver market, along with Helmut Marko and Dietrich Mateschitz. We could have taken an experienced driver, somebody guaranteed to deliver to a relatively known level, or equally we could take on a much younger driver in the hope that they’ll develop to a very high level,” he added.
Ricciardo started his F1 career on a loan deal with HRT and also spent some time in the Toro Rosso seat in 2012.
