Jean-Eric Vergne well placed to enter F1?

The announcement of Daniel Ricciardo’s appointment to drive the second HRT team car surely relieved the two Toro Rosso drivers: Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari alternated in giving up their seats on Friday mornings to the team’s third driver.

Indeed, these drivers, like Sebastian Vettel and others before him, are part of the Red Bull Junior Team, which aims to take drivers to the highest level, Formula 1. With the lackluster performances of the Swiss driver during 2010 and the very mixed start to the season for the Spaniard, the pressure was intense on both drivers, who had to outperform their teammate at all costs to ensure they kept their seat. Jaime Alguersuari was in a precarious position before the Canadian Grand Prix, where he scored his first points of the season by achieving an impressive eighth place, before repeating the feat at the European Grand Prix. This likely saved him from being replaced by the young Australian driver.

Because the Red Bull Junior Team wants to place its drivers in F1 only if they are promising. And while other groups prefer to have their drivers go through the GP2 Series, renowned as the stepping stone to F1, the energy drink group prefers to diversify the experience of its drivers before taking them to Formula Renault 3.5, part of the World Series by Renault.

Thus, Daniel Ricciardo narrowly missed out on the title of this promotion last year in the final race of the year and returned this year while also holding the position of third driver for Scuderia Toro Rosso, which, it should be noted, enabled the emergence of the reigning world champion, Sebastian Vettel, in 2008.

But this position made him lose valuable points for his goal of winning the title this year, to the benefit of his Friday morning experience with the Italian team.

And it’s another driver from the Red Bull Junior Team who took the opportunity to score big points, a French driver no less: Jean-Eric Vergne. The tricolore driver won the British F3 championship last year before achieving some great results at the end of the year during WSR races. He was then hired by the Carlin team for this year 2011, and, like the Australian before him, aims to win the title to aid his promotion to Formula 1.

But like Daniel Ricciardo who was linked to Scuderia Toro Rosso, Jean-Eric Vergne (Editor’s note: JEV) has a contract with Red Bull Racing, which sometimes seriously hinders him in his main goal. Indeed, the Frenchman works on the development of the Austrian team’s single-seater in Milton Keynes, which sometimes prevents him from taking part in the Formula Renault 3.5 free practice sessions. This has been felt on several occasions already this year, benefiting Robert Wickens, who is also linked to a Formula 1 team: Marussia Virgin Racing, and is a teammate of Jean-Eric Vergne.

But the appointment of Daniel Ricciardo removes an opponent in the race for the title from Jean-Eric Vergne, who is only 30 points behind his teammate, equivalent to a victory and a seventh place. Everything is still possible for the Frenchman, who, like his compatriots Romain Grosjean, Charles Pic, and Jules Bianchi, could join a Formula 1 team in the future… provided Red Bull allows him to focus on his championship and not primarily on the development of the RB7…