Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Ricciardo to get first drive of Red Bull's new RB12

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Daniel Ricciardo will be behind the wheel on the opening two days of testing for Red Bull next week.

The Australian driver will put the first laps on the team's new RB12, which is powered by a Tag Heuer-branded Renault engine. Ricciardo has been confirmed as driving on Monday and Tuesday before handing over to team-mate Daniil Kvyat on the final two days of the first test.

Red Bull's new car will appear for the first time on Monday morning, with the team having launched a brand new livery on Wednesday afternoon but displaying it on last year's car. Speaking on Wednesday team principal Christian Horner said the team had taken "risks" with the RB12.

"The team morale is really strong despite the lateness of engine decisions and everyone got their heads down to make a competitive car for this year," Horner said.

"They pushed to the wire. We hadn’t done any crash tests until Monday this week and completed them all in three days. The last one about an hour ago [on Wednesday]. We take risks which other teams would never dream of. That is our DNA and the competitive drive."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.