Ricciardo Puts F1 Fate in the Hands of Helmut Marko

Daniel Ricciardo did his job well during the rookie F1 test in Abu Dhabi last week, where he impressed everyone with his incredible speed at the wheel of the fastest racer of 2010, the Red Bull RB6. And his doing well has put the Red Bull management in some sort of a difficulty when setting up their F1 lineups for the campaign to come.

Before the rookie test, it was clear enough that Red Bull Racing would go on in 2011 with their existing lineup, world champion Sebastian Vettel and Australia's Mark Webber, while their satellite team Scuderia Toro Rosso would line up Jaime Aguersuari and Sebastien Buemi. If the Red Bull lineup for 2011 will, beyond any doubt, remain the same, not the same thing could be said about their Faenza based counterparts.

Recent rumors have suggested that Red Bull will be trying to find Ricciardo a spot with STR for the 2011 F1 season, where he would replace Buemi. STR boss Franz Tost hinted that the Swiss racer is not in a very comfortable spot right now, but avoided to give any further information about his situation.

As far as Ricciardo is concerned, the 21-year old has recently returned to his native Australia, but not before he told reporters that his entire F1 future depends on Red Bull's motorsport consultant Helmut Marko.

“At the moment I have nothing to tell. I am on standby, but that feels alright with me. It is up to Helmut. I only can wait and hope that he finds me a place for 2011,” said Ricciardo in a recent interview with F1's official website.

He also revealed that his scoring fastest laps on the Abu Dhabi circuit quicker even than the ones put in by Red Bull's regular drivers Vettel and Webber did not get him a whole lot of praises from Marko, but simply a “Well done!”