Rising Red Bull star Brendon Hartley has given Scuderia Toro Rosso's 2008 challenger its first shakedown in a top-secret test in Italy.
The teenage Red Bull protégé, currently competing in the British F3 Series, debuted the Ferrari-powered STR3 – a re-incarnation of the Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull Racing RB4 – at Varano, Italy, last week during a three-day test session.
With regular Toro Rosso drivers Sebastian Vettel and Sébastien Bourdais engaged in action in Malaysia and Bahrain, responsibility for giving the new car its first taste of action fell to Hartley. The Kiwi ace is hotly-tipped, given his Red Bull backing and auspicious pace, for a Formula 1 future.
“There's been a lot happening in the last few weeks that I haven't been able to speak about,” revealed the 18-year-old youngster, in an interview with the New Zealand Herald.
“The Formula 1 testing with Toro Rosso was a confidential development session for a car that is yet to be publicly launched.
“What I can share is that it was a privilege to be invited to drive the new car for the first time. The sensations and the performance were incredible. The levels of grip and acceleration were simply awesome.”
So keen were Toro Rosso to keep the test session under wraps that the Faenza-based outfit elected not to run the STR3 in racing livery, instead opting for a dark blue paint-job.
The outing adds to speculation that Hartley will be ushered into a Formula 1 seat in the not-too-distant future. He is regarded as one of the most promising drivers to emerge from the Red Bull junior programme, after becoming the youngest-ever winner of the Formula Renault 2.0 EuroCup last year.
crash.net
The teenage Red Bull protégé, currently competing in the British F3 Series, debuted the Ferrari-powered STR3 – a re-incarnation of the Adrian Newey-designed Red Bull Racing RB4 – at Varano, Italy, last week during a three-day test session.
With regular Toro Rosso drivers Sebastian Vettel and Sébastien Bourdais engaged in action in Malaysia and Bahrain, responsibility for giving the new car its first taste of action fell to Hartley. The Kiwi ace is hotly-tipped, given his Red Bull backing and auspicious pace, for a Formula 1 future.
“There's been a lot happening in the last few weeks that I haven't been able to speak about,” revealed the 18-year-old youngster, in an interview with the New Zealand Herald.
“The Formula 1 testing with Toro Rosso was a confidential development session for a car that is yet to be publicly launched.
“What I can share is that it was a privilege to be invited to drive the new car for the first time. The sensations and the performance were incredible. The levels of grip and acceleration were simply awesome.”
So keen were Toro Rosso to keep the test session under wraps that the Faenza-based outfit elected not to run the STR3 in racing livery, instead opting for a dark blue paint-job.
The outing adds to speculation that Hartley will be ushered into a Formula 1 seat in the not-too-distant future. He is regarded as one of the most promising drivers to emerge from the Red Bull junior programme, after becoming the youngest-ever winner of the Formula Renault 2.0 EuroCup last year.
crash.net