Red Bull has confirmed the race programme for its juniors Dan Ticktum and Juri Vips with Lucas Auer named as its new junior driver from 2019 onward.
As known, Ticktum will race full-time in Japan’s Super Formula for Team Mugen Honda as he raced in selected rounds last year. The British driver will focus on Japan rather than compete in the FIA Formula 2 Championship.
Ticktum’s preparations for the new season is already underway with the two-day rookie test at Suzuka this week. Joining him in Super Formula will be Red Bull’s new recruit Auer, as the Austrian switches to single-seaters after racing in DTM.
The 24-year-old has also started his preparations in the two-day test and will race for the B-Max Racing Team Honda in his debut season in Super Formula. The ties between Red Bull and Honda is strengthened even more with the announcements.
Elsewhere, Honda junior Yuki Tsunoda will be joined by the new Red Bull junior Vips in the FIA Formula 3 Championship with the Estonian joining HitechGP for the 2019 season. Vips already made his debut as a Red Bull protege in the Macau GP.
While Vips will concentrate on the solo F3 series, Tsunoda will also race in the other F3 series which has been renamed to Formula European Masters and will continue to run under the DTM programme.
The Japanese driver will race for German’s Motopark team with whom Ticktum and Vips both raced in the 2018 season. Tsunoda – who will race with Jenzer in FIA’s F3 – will therefore have a dual programme in his first year of racing in Europe.
The Red Bull Junior Team for 2019 seems complete with the hiring of Vips and Auer along with Tsunoda in partnership with Honda. The racing programme for Jack Doohan, Dennis Hauger, Jonny Edgar and Harry Thompson will be revealed at a later stage.
