2009 Carlin drivers looking to an F1 future
01 December 2009Drivers from Carlin's race winning 2009 teams are out in force this week at the Jerez circuit in Spain for the collective young drivers F1 tests. British F3 champion Daniel Ricciardo is testing for Red Bull Racing, F3 Euro Series racer Brendon Hartley for Toro Rosso while former World Series racer Oliver Turvey tested for McLaren this afternoon.
Current British F3 champion Ricciardo will spend three days in the Red Bull F1 car thanks to a dominating performance in this year's British F3 championship. The 20 year-old Australian took seven race wins and 13 podiums in his second year as a Red Bull Junior team member.
Fellow Red Bull driver Hartley has just finished his second year with the Carlin squad. The New Zealander finished third in last year's British F3 championship and raced for Carlin's F3 Euro Series team this year, taking a race win at Brands Hatch in September.
Also moving on after two years at Carlin is British racer and former McLaren Autosport BRDC winner Turvey, who competed with Carlin in this year's Formula Renault 3.5 championship. The 21 year-old racer finished the season fourth overall and top of the rookie standings, also taking a stunning pole and race win at Monaco earlier this year. Turvey will take one of the coveted seats with McLaren at the young driver test this week.
In addition, Marcus Ericsson who raced with Carlin at Macau in 2008 and Mirko Bortolotti who took a podium on his F3 Euro Series debut with Carlin at Hockenheim in October will be testing with Brawn GP and Toro Rosso respectively.
Carlin has a long history of running drivers who later develop into the F1 stars of tomorrow. Of the 2009 F1 drivers, over 40 per cent had driven a Carlin car at some point in their career. While Ricciardo, Hartley and Turvey take their place behind the wheel of an F1 car this week, Carlin's 2008 British F3 champion Jaime Alguersuari has already competed in eight Formula One Grand Prix, while simultaneously competing with Carlin in Formula Renault 3.5.
"Daniel, Oliver and Brendon are extremely deserving of the opportunities presented to them in Jerez this week", said Carlin race director Trevor Carlin. "From the moment they stepped in a Carlin car we knew that they were something special and I've no doubt that all three will go onto great things. In the last yen years we've developed a great heritage of running the F1 drivers of the future and the entire team take great pleasure in seeing former Carlin drivers go on to great things. It's a tradition we aim to continue in 2010."