Christian Horner has all but ruled out Jean-Eric Vergne for the vacant Red Bull seat next season, hinting that it is now a two-horse race between Kimi Raikkonen and Daniel Ricciardo.
Just a handful of weeks ago, the championship winning team principal identified all three as potential candidates, but since that decision, Vergne has failed to finish a race and has qualified well behind team-mate Ricciardo.
When asked if the Frenchman was no longer in the running, he replied: “Essentially, probably.”
It comes after the Austrian owned outfit chose to give Ricciardo time behind the wheel of the RB9 during the Young Driver Test this week, alongside Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Felix da Costa and Carlos Saintz Jnr.
“It’s an opportunity here [at the test] for us to have a look at Daniel, for him to do some of the tyre testing work for us in an RBR car and it’s a great opportunity for him,” he told Sky Sports News.
“You’ve got to look at what these guys have at their disposal. For sure both Jean-Eric and Daniel are very quick drivers and we’ve got an opportunity to have a closer look at Daniel which is why we’ve chosen to exercise that and then get him in the car tomorrow.”
Horner refused to comment on which of the two, Raikkonen or Ricciardo, were favourite to take the seat, adding that a decision would come later in the summer.
“The situation between the drivers is obviously going to be confidential between the team and those drivers. Kimi’s track record speaks for itself; he’s a championship contender as we speak. He pushed Sebastian very hard at the last grand prix and we’re in a fortunate position where not only are we attracting fantastic drivers like Kimi, we’ve also got the opportunity to look at the youngsters we’ve been nurturing in the likes of Daniel.
“Obviously there’s a great deal of interest in the seat but we will be looking to make some decisions later in the summer.”
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