Daniel Ricciardo travels in a confident frame of mind to Beijing for the next round of the Formula BMW Asia Series to held at the Goldenport Circuit on June 10-11th.
Daniel Ricciardo entered the Formula BMW Asia Series with a two year plan in mind. Learn the ropes in 2006 and go out and win the Series in 2007. The 16 year old driver from Perth, Australia, certainly has an old head on young shoulders and his plan reflects the mature way he is forging a career in motor sport. However the plan is already going slightly awry due to the fact that he is proving to be just too fast too soon! In only the second event of this year’s Series, Ricciardo scored a fine third place at the Sepang F1 Circuit at the Asian Festival of Speed held on May 14th.
Ricciardo drives for Eurasia Motorport and the team has been extremely impressed with his progress. Piers Hunnisett, who in addition to being a co-owner of Eurasia Motorsport, is also the manager of Formula One driver Narain Karthikeyan and who knows how to spot a driver with F1 potential, remarked as he watched Ricciardo collect his trophy on the podium that “Daniel definitely has a lot of promise and I can see him following in the wheel tracks of guys like Mark Webber and really making a name for himself in motor racing”.
The next round of the series will be held at the tight and twisty Goldenport Circuit in Beijing. Most of the drivers in the Formula BMW Asia Series are used to the wide expanses of modern Grand Prix Circuits, like Sepang, therefore the confines of the 3.3km circuit will be little bit of a culture shock. “Those drivers who can cope with the walls being so close will have huge advantage and I am sure Daniel will relish the challenge” reckons Mark Goddard of Eurasia Motor Sport.
Formula BMW Asia cars are really underpowered Formula Three Cars and they are proving World Wide to be a great stepping stone to motor racing stardom. “We have at least seven potential race winners on the starting grid for every race and the competition is really fierce. The drivers also get to learn about set up and using the very sophisticated data logging system on the car allowing them to hone their driving skills extremely quickly. Even Australian V8 teams are looking to single seater drivers nowadays and Formula BMW Asia gives drivers like Daniel the chance to develop really fast, close to home, at a fraction of the cost of racing in Europe” remarked Goddard.
Talking of data, the Team’s engineer Mark Burgess, who also works for current British F3 Championship leaders, Double R Racing, reckons Daniel is very close to that breakthrough win. “The great thing about data is that the drivers can see on the computer screen why they are losing out and it really helps them to improve very fast.
Daniel is working hard on finding those elusive few tenths of a second he needs to cut from his lap times to get to the top step of the podium and the team has great faith in his abilities and it would not surprise me to see him win a race very soon” reported Burgess.
Ricciardo has taken a bold step to follow in the footsteps of Michael Patrizi who is now racing in Formula BMW UK after racing in last year’s Asian series. Its already looking like its going to pay. Rounds 6, 7 and 8 of the Formula BMW Asia Series will take place at the Goldenport Race Circuit on June 10-11th. See www.eurasiamotorsport.com for the latest news.
