British racer Jake Dennis will return to drive the 2018 Red Bull Racing car in next week’s Formula 1 in-season test at Hungaroring.
The 23-year-old got a surprise call-up to take part in the Barcelona in-season test in May after the Spanish GP when he drove the RB14 on Day 2 where he completed 75 laps to be 11th in the standings with a best time of 1m20.440s.
He will now return to the cockpit to drive the car on one of the two days of testing at Hungaroring after this weekend’s Hungarian GP – scheduled for July 31 – August 1 date. The team is yet to confirm the second driver.
Dennis has been doing simulator work for Red Bull to help them during the race weekends and outside that whenever required, while he primarily races in the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup for R-Motorsport and also the ADAC GT Masters for Phoenix Racing.
While Dennis gets another chance, but Red Bull also wanted to give a run to its junior driver Dan Ticktum. The British racer races for Motopark in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship and also in Japan’s Super Formula series for Team Mugen.
However, Ticktum’s lack of superlicense points meant he was reportedly not allowed to take part in the official F1 test even though young drivers can be fielded by the teams. But with Ticktum almost zero points meant, it was a tall order for Red Bull to convince the FIA.
The youngster is being looked as the next Red Bull prospect to join Toro Rosso in F1 – if not in 2019 but most certainly in 2020, by when he should have enough points. Of course, it all depends on how he does this year in European F3, where he is one of the title contenders.