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Red Bull signs F3 runner-up Zane Maloney as reserve

Red Bull Racing has announced that it has signed up 2019 British Formula 4 champion Zane Maloney as a reserve driver for 2023.

Maloney will also join the acclaimed Red Bull young driver programme that has seen the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo graduate to Formula 1 in the past.

“I am thrilled to announce that I will be a part of the Red Bull Racing junior team and F1 reserve driver in 2023," he said in a press release. "I am grateful for the opportunity and support and look forward to getting the season started.”

Read also: Lawson to replace Vips as Red Bull F1 reserve

After spells in the Euroformula Open and the Formula Regional European Championship by Alpine, the 19-year-old from Barbados spent 2022 competing in the Formula 3 championship with Trident.

He claimed three consecutive feature race victories and ended the year runner up to Victor Martins by just five points, after the finalrace at Monza was stopped early due to an accident.

He went on to make his Formula 2 debut in the last round of the season at Abu Dhabi, also with trident, but missed out on points in either the sprint or feature race at Yas Marina.

He took part in the post-season Formula 2 test with Carlin alongside fellow Red Bull Junior Enzo Fittipaldi. Maloney completed 246 laps during the three-day event.

Malone is expected to step up full-time to F2 next year and will combine his racing role with reserve duties at Red Bull.

Liam Lawson has been the team's test and reserve driver since Juri Vips was released by the squad after ehe Estonian used o derogative term in a live Twitch stream of a video game competition.

Both Lawson and Vips continue to be members of the same Red Bull young driver programme that Malone has now joined.

Daniel Ricciardo has also returned to the team after four years at Renault and McLaren but his role is understood to be more along the lines of a 'brand ambassador' rather than undertaking test duties.

However the Australian will be attending at least half the Grands Prix in 2023 and will be their obvious first choice for 'third driver' should either Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez be ill or unavailable.

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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.