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An Australian teenager has won an international open-wheeler motor racing championship that could help catapult him into Formula One.
Daniel Ricciardo, 19, of Duncraig in Perth, clinched the West European Cup in Formula Renault at the Catalunya circuit in Barcelona at the weekend.
A karting champion in his junior racing days in Western Australia, Ricciardo also finished a close runner-up in the Formula Renault Eurocup in Barcelona, scoring a dominant win in the final round.
He won 15 of 29 races in the two Formula Renault championships this year, often competing against up to 50 other young racers from around the world at many of Europe’s grand prix circuits.
The cars they race are two-litre single-seaters that reach speeds of more than 260 km/h.
Ricciardo also accumulated three second places, a third, 13 pole positions and 12 fastest laps this season.
His success makes him the Australian best placed to follow in the tracks of Mark Webber – and world champions Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones – into F1 within the next two or three years.
Many of today’s F1 drivers have come through Formula Renault, including Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, the challenger to Lewis Hamilton for this year’s world title, and last year’s world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Ricciardo raced this year for French team SG Formula with big sponsorship from the energy drink company that owns the F1 team Red Bull Racing for which Webber drives.
Red Bull motorsport director, Austrian Dr Helmut Marko, a former GP driver, is in constant contact with Ricciardo, whose likely next stop will be Formula Three in Europe.
He pipped Spaniard Roberto Merhi for Formula Renault’s West European Cup but lost out to Finn Valtteri Bottas in the Eurocup.
“I’m very happy about the West European title, but unfortunately my efforts just weren’t quite enough in the Eurocup despite today’s race victory,” Ricciardo said.
“That was a race made to measure – I qualified on pole position, set the fastest lap of the race and took the win.”
Ricciardo’s Eurocup hopes were dented when he found himself with the wrong set-up on his car in Saturday’s wet race after starting from pole and he finished sixth.
“I virtually had no front tyres left near the end of that race – we had unfortunately chosen the wrong set-up for the conditions – and basically lost any chance.
“But, at the end of the season, I’m obviously very pleased with my 15 wins in both series and a very important title.”
One of Ricciardo’s mentors has been Perth motor racing identity Brett Lupton, who guided V8 Supercar champion Garth Tander to his initial national success and fame.
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