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Ricciardo most promising option - Newey

Daniel Ricciardo will drive for Red Bull next year © Getty Images

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Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey believes Daniel Ricciardo is the most promising young driver in Formula One.

On Monday evening Red Bull announced Ricciardo would complete its driver line-up alongside Sebastian Vettel in 2014, putting an end to speculation of a high-profile signing such as Kimi Raikkonen. Newey said the team's management had come to the conclusion that a younger driver would be a better proposition than an experienced one and that Ricciardo was the best of the bunch currently racing in F1.

"Since Mark [Webber] announced his retirement, Christian [Horner] and I have been looking carefully at the driver market, along with Helmut Marko and Dietrich Mateschitz," Newey said. "We could have taken an experienced driver, somebody guaranteed to deliver to a relatively known level, or equally we could take on a much younger driver in the hope that they'll develop to a very high level.

"We looked at the latter option and concluded that of the younger drivers, Daniel is the most promising. From Red Bull's point of view that also fits well because the driver that Christian and I feel is the most promising is part of the Red Bull young driver programme."

Newey said the situation had reminded him of the 1993 season at Williams when Nigel Mansell left the team to make way for Alain Prost and Damon Hill, who went on to become the 1996 world champion, was drafted in.

"The decision actually reminded me a little bit of a similar situation we had when I was at Williams.," Newey said. "Nigel Mansell was leaving and we needed someone alongside Alain Prost. We could stick with Riccardo Patrese or take a punt on a young driver called Damon Hill who was our test driver at the time. I think it's good to bring young blood in and give promising drivers a chance."

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