With Red Bull juniors Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne stepping up for 2012, the spotlight is set to fall on the energy drink company’s next young hopeful.
That youngster is Carlos Sainz Jr, the 17-year-old son of the Spanish world rally legend.
Sainz Jr is now the cream of Red Bull’s junior driver programme, and this week is heading to Milton Keynes to drive the F1 team’s state-of-the-art driver simulator, Spanish sports newspaper Marca reports.
Also in the spotlight this year is Russian 17-year-old Kaniil Kvyat, who like Sainz Jr is the other ’veteran’ of the Red Bull programme.
Sainz Jr moves into the British F3 championship for 2012; a category previously won by former Red Bull juniors Ricciardo, Vergne and Jaime Alguersuari.