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Geoffrey Harris22 Dec 2014
NEWS

MOTORSPORT: 'Next Ricciardo' finalises 2015 drive

Anton DePasquale has joined a top Formula Renault 2.0-litre team for his second season in Europe

The teenage Australian racing driver following in Daniel Ricciardo’s tracks in Europe has been signed by a championship-winning team that has been a stepping stone to Formula One for four drivers who will race in next year’s Australian Grand Prix.

Finns Kimi Raikkonen and Valterri Bottas, Russian Daniil Kyvat and Spaniard Carlos Sainz Junior all raced with Koiranen GP in the junior open-wheeler ranks — and now 19-year-old Aussie Anton DePasquale will do the same in 2015.

It will be DePasquale’s second year in Europe and — as Ricciardo did — he will be competing against up to 35 other young drivers from around the world in every race of the Formula Renault 2.0-litre Eurocup.

Koiranen GP said it had hired DePasquale for his “remarkable skills” and anticipated he would be a strong challenger in the seven-round, 17-race series.

This year the Victorian — from Werribee in Melbourne’s south-west who, like Ricciardo, is of Sicilian ancestry and only began karting at Geelong six years ago — won the Formula Renault 1.6-litre Northern European Championship (NEC), with nine victories in 15 races, after taking the final Australian Formula Ford Championship in 2013.

He is among an elite group that will get to practice on the race-car simulator at the British base of Red Bull Racing for which 25-year-old West Australian Ricciardo won three F1 GPs this year.

While not drafted into the Red Bull junior driver development squad through which Ricciardo was groomed for F1 over several years, DePasquale recently participated in a week-long training camp run by the energy drink company’s human performance specialists at Lanzarote on the Spanish Canary Islands off the coast of Africa.

He also has been chosen by the world governing body of motorsport, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), to be a member of its Young Driver Excellence Academy in 2015.

Koiranen GP -- owned by Finnish brothers Marko and Jari Koiranen and managed by their compatriot Afa Heikkinen -- operates from Barcelona and also fields a team in GP3,  the F1 feeder series that has been won (although not with Koiranen) by another F1 driver, Mexican Esteban Gutierrez, as well as Bottas and Kyvat. Mark Webber’s New Zealand protégé Mitch Evans also has won that series.

DePasquale will base himself in Spain now after a year in Austria, which was the home of Lechner Racing for which he won the Formula Renault 1.6-litre title.

After that success he tested for three top 2.0-litre teams before he and manager Mark Larkham — the former V8 Supercar driver and Australian open-wheeler champion turned TV commentator — opted for Koiranen.

“Joining Koiranen GP for Eurocup is such a great opportunity for me,” De Pasquale said.

“We had a strategy to get the best seat in the competition for both my development and future success.

“I love the winning environment and the professional way in which the team operates — it just felt right from the very first test.

“I know how tough this category is and the team is already into understanding and focusing on my development to become a winner at this level.”

Koiranen’s Heikkinen vowed to give DePasquale “all the necessary tools to fight in this very high-profile [in European motor racing] championship”.

“Anton had a very strong first international season and winning the Formula Renault NEC 1.6 title shows his remarkable skills,” Heikkinen said.

“It is a logical step for him to drive next year in a Formula Renault 2.0 and we are delighted to welcome him into our Eurocup team.
“We are sure he will be a good challenger straight from his first year.”

Koiranen GP won the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and the 2.0-litre ALPS Championship this year with 19-year-old Dutch driver Nyck de Vries, a two-time karting world champion now tied to F1 team McLaren — although not with a GP drive yet.

Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 F1 world champion now in his second stint with Ferrari, and Valterri Bottas, fourth in this year’s world championship with the Williams team, drove for Koiranen on their way up.

Kyvat, the 20-year-old Russian who will be Ricciardo’s Red Bull teammate next season, won the 2012 ALPS Championship with Koiranen and has driven in F1 this year with Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull junior team with which Ricciardo previously raced.

Carlos Sainz Junior, 20-year-old son of Spain’s legendary World Rally Champion and Dakar marathon rally winner, won the 2011 NEC Championship with Koiranen and will make his GP debut in Melbourne in March with Toro Rosso, alongside 17-year-old fellow rookie Max Verstappen from the Netherlands.

Mark Larkham, who mentors and manages young driving talent through his Gold Coast-based Australian Motor Sport Academy, said DePasquale had “hit the target” in securing “one of the most sought after [race] seats in Europe” with Koiranen.

“But now it gets really serious… this next step is very serious,” Larkham said of the teenager’s career.

“Anton has done a great job this year and is listening, learning and maturing into the more complete driver he will need to be to succeed at the next level.

“I have no doubt that his natural speed coupled to the development opportunity in this world-class team will create a very formidable combination in due course.”

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Written byGeoffrey Harris
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