Hispania have confirmed that Daniel Ricciardo will compete at the British Grand Prix in place of Narain Karthikeyan as part of his development programme.
The Spanish outfit signed a deal with Red Bull Racing, for whom Ricciardo is contracted to under their young driver development scheme.
He joins HRT in an official role as one of their drivers, alongside Karthikeyan and Vitantonio Liuzzi – it hasn’t been confirmed how many races he will compete in, but The F1 Times understands it could remaining races, minus the Indian GP.
Chairman of the outfit, José Ramón Carabante, said he is proud to be working with Red Bull to develop Ricciardo.
“This agreement is a reward for all the hard work Hispania Racing has shown since we started in Formula 1 last year,” he said in a team statement. “We’re proud that the Formula 1 World Champion team has trusted us in their effort of developing their drivers. Let’s hope that this is just the start of a fruitful relationship.”
Colin Kolles, Hispania Racing team principal, added: “I’m happy to welcome Daniel to the team; I’m glad the team managed to conclude this deal together with Dr. Helmut Marko who deserves my personal respect.”
The 21-year-old Australian driver, who has competed in every 2011 Friday practice session with the Toro Rosso team, labelled the deal a ‘dream come true’.
“It’s a dream come true for me – for the first time on an F1 starting grid! I had to pinch myself a couple of times to be sure that it’s real.
“I’m excited and can hardly wait to drive at Silverstone. It’s a new challenge, a new experience, a new team, but I’m ready and will give of my best in any event.”
This isn’t the first time Hispania have changed drivers during a season. In their rookie year they replaced Bruno Senna at Silverstone with Sakon Yamamoto, before dropping Karun Chandhok and introducing Christian Klien.
