Ricciardo is going to replace Webber next year

Red Bull Racing confirmed on Monday that Daniel Ricciardo will replace Mark Webber next season as Sebastian Vettel's teammate.

Mark Webber is going to retire from Formula One in the end of this season. In the mean time Ricciardo will continue with Toro Rosso.

Red Bull had also confirmed that they were interested in Kimi Räikkönen but they still chose the younger Australian as their second driver.

Ricciardo is almost certain that he will get equal treatment as his new teammate Vettel.

Mark Webber has said several times that Vettel has got much better support at Red Bull than him.

F1 rumors are always a part of the summer break

Every year when the summer break starts the rumors can be heard everywhere.
So what are the biggest rumors this summer?

Before the summer break everybody were talking about Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Räikkönen fighting for the Red Bull seat which was very realistic. Red Bull even said that they are the only choices.

Now the rumors are far from realistic but maybe some of them have a little bit truth in them. Let's begin.

This year I have heard that Kimi has been connected to Red Bull, Ferrari and Lotus. It would be stupid to even say any other teams cause Kimi wouldn't be interested. So they are saying that Lotus has money issues, Red Bull is not sure if they want two champions in the same team and Ferrari wants Kimi back but he doesn't like Luca di Montezemolo that much anymore. Some even say that Kimi already has a contract with Ferrari.

The Ferrari news came this week and every day I have heard something new about this. The situation right know looks like this:

• Ferrari got angry with Alonso when he criticized the car/team. Just like Prost did in the early 90's.
• Alonso's manager has been talking to Red Bull. 
• Ferrari has also heard that Alonso has in fact talked with Red Bull several times in 2008 and 2009 and Red Bull refused to take him. I can talk more about that later.
• Alonso's motivation is not the same as last year because he wants a car like Red Bull. He actually said that the best birthday present would be "to have a car like the other drivers".
• 2010 and 2012 could have been easy for Alonso when he had such a big lead in the points but he somehow lost it all even though it look like a sure thing. Ferrari isn't happy.
• Kimi on the other hand is the driver who was the underdog but still won the drivers world championship in 2007. In fact Alonso was the man that Kimi won that year and now they have the "loser" driving for them.
• Ferrari never wanted to get rid of Kimi in 2009. I mean why would they kick out Kimi in the middle of the contract who won a championship for them instead of Felipe Massa? Santander and Alonso wanted Kimi out of the team cause he was a bigger threat and still is.
• Now the Ferrari team is realizing that Alonso not winning championships is not worth it even though Santander is paying for it all.
• Alonso had an agreement with Ferrari over 10 years ago when he drove for Minardi that some day he would drive for them (Ferrari). They had planned how and what would happen before that. Alonso didn't do what they asked him to and got a deal with Renault and then with McLaren. Ferrari felt backstabbed and now they think that Alonso is not a team player.
• The rumors also say that Massa is going to leave and he is being replaced by Hulkenberg, Kobayashi or Kovalainen.

That was everything I remember hearing this week about Ferrari. Almost everything is probably bulls**t but there can still be a bit truth in the mix.

The Red Bull and Alonso news started when his manager went to see them (like I said earlier). I also mentioned earlier that Alonso had talked to Red Bull already in 2008 about the 2009 season. He asked for a lot of money and promised to make them a winning team. They refused to pay him and got Vettel from Toro Rosso instead. Then they became competitive without Alonso and he gave them a new offer. Less money and he wants to switch teams in the middle of the 2009 season. They refused again.

Alonso is famous of arguing with his teams so maybe Red Bull didn't want him because of that?

• When Alonso was about to leave Renault he accused them of sabotage cause he made a deal with McLaren.
• At McLaren he said that they made him the number two driver and that the rookie Hamilton was number one. He also sabotaged Hamilton's qualifying on purpose in Hungary.
• Then he went back to Renault and at the same time looked for other F1 seats.
• Let's not forget the "crashgate" incident which ruined the career of Nelson Piquet jr. The argument was: did Alonso know about it or not? Alonso denied everything and his bosses Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds took the blame. See a video about it from this link.

The stupidest rumor yet was when Lewis Hamilton's father Anthony was talking to someone at Red Bull. Then people started saying that Hamilton is switching from Mercedes to Red Bull. Later I heard that Lewis was going to Ferrari.. Apparently he had said that every driver wants to drive for Ferrari at least ones. Hamilton's father had also been to Maranello??

Let's just stop before this gets to much out of hand shall we...

The Red Bull Racing Story: 2005-2012

It's hard to understand how a team can be this successful.

Check out this video from youtube and you will probably understand the Red Bull -team a bit better.

It's quite boring when a team has this much success. Just like McLaren (the 80's and early 90s), Williams (the 90's) and then Ferrari (2000-2004). Specially if it's always the same driver who wins.

Schumacher won almost everything with Ferrari just like Vettel is doing with Red Bull today.

McLaren and Williams always had two great drivers who were equal. And in the end there was one champion. With Red Bull you always know that Sebastian is the better one and not Mark Webber.

Webber is great too but he is not a leader like Vettel and Schumacher before him.

I would love to see Räikkönen or Alonso with Red Bull. It would be much more interesting seeing Vettel fight till the end for all the victories and not getting them on a plate.

Next year is going to be great! Let's hope they don't choose Ricciardo to be the number two driver.

2013 Young driver's test and the Red Bull-situation

First we have all the test times combined below

• 1. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 1min 32.894
• 2. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 32.972
• 3. Carlos Sainz Jr Spain Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 33.016
• 4. Daniel Ricciardo Australia Red Bull-Renault 1min 33.187
• 5. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 1min 33.242
• 6. Nicolas Prost France Lotus-Renault 1min 33.256
• 7. Carlos Sainz Jr Spain Red Bull-Renault 1min 33.546
• 8. Davide Valsecchi Italy Lotus-Renault 1min 33.554
• 9. Davide Rigon Italy Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 33.592
• 10. Kevin Magnussen Denmark McLaren-Mercedes 1min 33.602
• 11. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari-Ferrari 1min 33.624
• 12. Jean-Eric Vergne France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 33.647
• 13. Paul di Resta Britain Force India-Mercedes 1min 33.774
• 14. Antonio Felix Da Costa Portugal Red Bull-Renault 1min 33.821
• 15. Oliver Turvey Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1min 33.864
• 16. James Calado Britain Force India-Mercedes 1min 33.957
• 17. Daniel Juncadella Spain Williams-Renault 1min 34.098
• 18. Pastor Maldonado Venezuela Williams-Renault 1min 34.116
• 19. Johnny Cecotto Venezuela Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 34.193
• 20. Robin Frijns Netherlands Sauber-Ferrari 1min 34.236
• 21. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Sauber-Ferrari 1min 34.224
• 22. Gary Paffett Britain McLaren-Mercedes 1min 34.294
• 23. Susie Wolff Britain Williams-Renault 1min 35.093
• 24. Giedo van der Garde Netherlands Caterham-Renault 1min 35.155
• 25. Daniil Kvyat Russia Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1min 35.281
• 26. Charles Pic France Caterham-Renault 1min 35.576
• 27. Kimiya Sato Japan Sauber-Ferrari 1min 35.642
• 28. Alexander Rossi America Caterham-Renault 1min 35.651
• 29. Will Stevens Britain Caterham-Renault 1min 36.082
• 30. Rodolfo Gonzalez Venezuela Marussia-Cosworth 1min 36.339
• 31. Tio Ellinas Cyprus Marussia-Cosworth 1min 36.676
• 32. Jules Bianchi France Marussia-Cosworth 1min 36.744
• 33. Max Chilton Britain Marussia-Cosworth 1min 38.347

Everybody was keeping an eye on Daniel Ricciardo and in my opinion he is not ready to challenge Sebastian Vettel with an identical car. Or is that what Red Bull is looking for? Is Ricciardo a better number two driver than Webber was? Maybe Räikkönen could be a very big threat to Vettel and maybe that is not what Red Bull is looking for.

Horner has said many times that they want Räikkönen but that they need to agree on some things. Räikkönen said that money matters but isn't that important anymore. In 2007 only Tiger Woods made more money than Räikkönen of all the athletes in the world so he doesn't need money anymore. He has even said after the Lotus finance problems that he has got enough money if they couldn't pay his salary. 

If money isn't the issue with Räikkönen then what is? What do they have to agree on?

Lotus lets him have alot of spare time and he does much less PR than anyone else. Is that the main thing here? Is Räikkönen free when he is with Lotus and does he feel like a prisoner with the other teams?

I would be very happy to see somebody beat Vettel at last! It's like when Senna came to McLaren in 1988. He showed Prost who is who and won him on his first year at McLaren when people thought that Prost was unbeatable.

Some people said that Räikkönen could not be champion with any car cause he didn't win with McLaren. They messed up at least 2 titles for him and even Ron Dennis admitted that. After retiring all the time with McLaren he went to Ferrari and became world champion on his first year.

I believe he could win Vettel on his first year with Red Bull too if he got the chance! Webber was often close to Vettel in the races and qualifyings. Räikkönen is in my opinion a better driver than Webber even thou he is very good as well.

Red Bull is making their decisions in August. Let's hope they announce it as soon as possible. The last time we have had a showdown like that was in 2007 when Alonso and Hamilton were in the same team. Unfortunately (for their sake) Kimi won them both in the end with his red beauty.. Next year it's time for a Red Bull instead!