Photo: Red Bull
Red Bull has added four more new names to its Junior Team roster following the relaunch of its Driver Search initiative.
Eleven young drivers aged 13 to 16 were invited to Jerez in August and assessed across Formula 4 and GP3 machinery run by Campos Racing. The first two drivers to be selected from this group, karters Fionn McLauglin and Scott Lindblom, were already announced last month.
They have now been joined by four more new signings: Ernesto Rivera and Jules Caranta, who are already racing in F4 this year, plus Rocco Coronel and Christopher Feghali from karting.
Mexican driver Rivera, 15, had already been linked with Red Bull after being seen with advisor Helmut Marko earlier this year. He has been racing with Campos in the Formula Winter Series and Spanish F4, taking one win in the latter and currently sitting fifth in the standings. That has come off the back of success in SKUSA karting in the United States last year, where he won the X30 Junior Winter Series and KA100 Senior SuperNationals titles.
Frenchman Caranta turned 16 last month and is also contesting his rookie season in cars, and fighting for the French F4 title with four wins so far after coming 15th in the United Arab Emirates series with Sainteloc Racing. He was 16th in the World Karting Championship in the senior OK class last year, after winning the IAME Euro Series in X30 Junior the season before.
Thirteen-year-old Coronel is the son of Japanese Formula 3 and Formula Nippon champion, touring car racer and Dutch Formula 1 pundit Tom and fellow racer Paulien Zwart and has had a strong season in OK Junior karts, placing fifth in Champions of the Future, 12th in the CIK-FIA European Championship and fourth in WSK’s Champions Cup.
Guided by the Victory Lane setup of Formula 2 racer Victor Martins and his brother Nicolas, Coronel last year came third in the IAME Euro Series, second in WSK Open Series and fourth in WSK Champions Cup in X30 Juniors, where he also finished fourth in the IAME Winter Cup earlier this year.
Lebanese driver Feghali turned 15 at the end of August and earlier this year joined Andrea Kimi Antonelli on the books of Minardi Management, run by Giovanni Minardi, son of Giancarlo. He comes from a rallying family, as father Abdo, uncle Roger and cousin Alex have all been successful in the discipline, while Abdo has also found fame in drifting with Red Bull sponsorship.
Feghali Jr has already driven in F4 tests with Drivex and last year came 13th in the OK Junior world championship and 20th in the IAME X30 Junior Euro Series. He currently leads the Rotax Max Senior standings in Lebanon.