Infinity Red Bull Racing team principal, Christian Horner has revealed that they have not yet decided who will take the second drivers seat that is available next season after Mark Webber’s departure at the end of the season.
Horner, speaking to AUTOSPORT, said “Nothing is fixed yet. We said we would take the summer to mull things over, but there is no commitment yet. I wouldn’t rule anything out at the moment. Until we finalise who is going to take the second seat, there is nothing much to say.”
This comes after reports earlier in the week stating that Kimi Raikkonen was out of the running for the Red Bull seat and that Toro Rosso driver, Daniel Ricciardo was most likely to take the number two seat at the Milton Keynes based team.
Horner also revealed that there are other possibilities other than Raikkonen and Ricciardo.
“You have to make sure you consider all the options and there are more options than you could possibly think,” he said.
This throws things wide open once again and there will be further speculation as to who is, and who will be in the front running for the open Red Bull seat. No doubt this will refuel the Fernando Alonso story to jump ship from Ferrari with speculation from the Hungarian Grand Prix that under certain conditions he could be a free agent for 2014.
Horner has also stated that, although impressive in testing, Ricciardo is not a certainty to join Red Bull.
“It is an important decision for us and we want to take the time to make the right decision and consider all the options.” he said.
We could see a Red Bull driver announcement in the week leading to the Italian Grand Prix.