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Rio Haryanto keeps his F1 dream alive
Hopeful: Indonesian race car driver Rio Haryanto poses Tuesday with his new car for the 2014 GP2 series, which will kick off in Bahrain on April 4 -6
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span class="inline inline-none">Hopeful: Indonesian race car driver Rio Haryanto poses Tuesday with his new car for the 2014 GP2 series, which will kick off in Bahrain on April 4 -6. Rio will contest the race on his new team, EQ8 Caterham Racing.
Entering his third season in the GP2 series, Indonesian race car driver Rio Haryanto hopes to speed into Formula One racing next year.
'This year, preparations are going well. Physically and mentally he is doing great. It's been a good year and there is no reason not to be in Formula One in 2015,' Rio's manager, Piers Hunnisett, told journalists on the sidelines of a press conference here on Tuesday.
His optimism was based on Rio's performances during the last two pre-season tests in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain, where he set the fastest laptime with one minute and 39.129 seconds in Bahrain.
He added that to race in Formula One, Rio needed to meet several requirements, including getting into the top five during the entire GP2 season or at least winning four to six races on average.
'One thing that Formula One teams look for is consistency. If you are consistently in the top five, they will know that you're a good driver,' Hunnisett said.
He added that at the moment there were probably up to 40 drivers at the same level as Rio. 'Next year's Formula One there will only be one or two places to be filled. So there is huge competition to get there.'
'My work as a manager is to wake up the Formula One team to get him in. It won't be easy but I think we're in a good position,' he said.
However, Rio is not confident about his performance in the past two years with GP2.
'I haven't gotten maximum results. But I recorded pretty good results [during the pre-season testing in Abu Dhabi and Bahrain]. It may be too soon to say whether I make it into Formula One,' the 21-year-old driver said.
Out of the 22 races he participated in last year, Rio only stood on the second step of the podium at the Silverstone circuit in England in July.
Therefore, he said that he would focus more on improving his GP2 performance this year, which will be his first time racing for the EQ8 Caterham Racing team. He previously raced for the Barwa Addax team.
Team principal of EQ8 Caterham Racing Mia Sharizman said that the team was happy that Rio would contest the 2014 GP2 with them, as it saw promise in the young driver.
'We have high hopes for Rio. Hopefully with Rio joining the team, we can be a group winner this year,' he said.
2014 GP2 series calendar
04-06 April Sakhir, Bahrain Race
09-11 May Barcelona, Spain Race
22-24 May Monte Carlo, Monaco Race
20-22 June Spielberg, Austria Race
04-06 July Silverstone, Great Britain Race
18-20 July Hockenheim, Germany Race
25-27 July Budapest, Hungary Race
22-24 August Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium Race
05-07 September Monza, Italy Race
10-12 October Sochi, Russia Race
21-23 November Yas Marina, UAE Racev
