British Formula 3 front runner Brendon Hartley will switch to the F3 Euro Series with Carlin Motorsport next year, the team confirmed on Wednesday night.

Hartley secured several victories during a maiden campaign in British F3 in 2008 but lost out to teammates Jaime Alguersuari and Oliver Turvey in the final standings.

However, with Carlin continuing their tie-up with Red Bull's junior driver programme, the New Zealander will remain with the outfit for an assault in Europe in 2009.

As well as confirming Hartley, Carlin Motorsport have announced that Daniel Ricciardo will join their team for next year's British F3 championship. The Australian was a front runner in last season's Formula Renault Eurocup championship, taking six wins but missing out on the title by just four points.

Speaking about the signings, team boss Trevor Carlin said: "Brendon is a very valued and well liked member of the team. He showed stunning pace in British F3 last year and towards the end of the season a new maturity and confidence emerged in his racing, which I'm sure we’ll see again in F3 Euro Series in 2009."

LATEST: New Zealand driver Brendon Hartley has guided his Red Bull car to the third fastest time after day one of Formula One (F1) testing in Spain but feels he could have gone faster if he had got fresh tyres for the afternoon session.


And with an error-free drive in excess of 300km in the one day, Hartley felt he had met the conditions for an FIA superlicence which allows him to race in F1 or become an official test driver for an F1 team.

In unofficial times listed on the F1 website, Hartley, 19, was credited with one minute 19.586 seconds in his RB4 car at the Jerez Circuit in south of Spain.

Fastest was Red Bull test driver Sebastien Buemi as this week's three-day session got under way at Jerez.

Buemi timed 1min 17.704sec in another RB4.

Second fastest was the BMW Sauber of Nick Heidfield in 1min 19.360sec. Christian Klein in another BMW Sauber and Nico Hulkenberg, in a Williams completed the top five.

Germany's Heidfeld finished the day second after covering 75 laps in the interim BMW Sauber, despite a brief on-track stoppage caused by a mechanical problem.

Austrian Klien, who was driving an F1.08B fitted with the team's KERS (kinetic energy recovery system) device, completed 94 laps on his way to fourth on the time sheets.

Formula 3 driver Hartley will now hand the car over to Red Bull grand prix star Sebastian Vettel for the remaining testing days.

"I think I did a reasonable job," Hartley told Radio Sport this morning.

He led the time sheets for most of the morning's session and finished it nine-tenths of a second off the fastest time.

"But in the afternoon, they were doing a lot of tests on the car and I didn't get to put on new tyres.

"I was improving a lot in myself, the track was improving, but I didn't get a lot of chances to set a (fast) lap which was a bit disappointing.

"I felt I could have gone a lot faster but that's normal testing, it's not a race meeting. In general it was just a great day and I am really happy to get the opportunity."

Hartley said he had completed 370km on the one day which qualified him for a superlicence.

"There were also people from FIA observing to make sure I am up to standard on the track.

"I'll find out sooner or later (if I've got the superlicence) ... I didn't make any mistakes, so I think everything will work out."

Hartley who has had brief shakedown runs in Red Bull cars this year, recently finished third in the Macau F3 Grand Prix after starting in 20th place. The 19-year-old also set a lap record in the process.

Hartley, who finished third in this year's British F3 championship, will head home for a break after F3 testing.

Young Palmerston North 19-year-old Brendon Hartley gets his chance at the biggest prize in Formula One when he officially tests for the Red Bull Racing team at Jerez, Spain, December 15-17.

It's been a long time between drinks, but New Zealand finally has another young driver officially in the ranks of Formula One.

Not since Scott Dixon tested a Williams F1 car in 2005 and Mike Thackwell raced in Canada back in 1984, has a Kiwi been called up to show his stuff in the hot seat of an F1 car.

"I can't wait actually, it's going to be a pretty special moment for me and I've been working towards this for my whole life," said Hartley from Spain. "It's pretty special and hard to put into words."

Early this year Hartley took part in an unofficial shakedown test of the new Ferrari-engined Toro Rosso F1 car in Italy as well as having a play in a Renault-engined Red Bull car at Silverstone before it was packed off to the Japanese Grand Prix as a replacement chassis for David Coulthard's car.

"It's going to be a lot different than what I was doing before [driving an F1 car] because I was just testing small things on the car and not really driving the car in anger.

"Now I'm driving the car against the stopwatch and actually pushing it to the limit around the track and that's the big difference," said Hartley.

Regular test driver Sebastien Buemi will join Hartley in getting serious track time in the car. Buemi appears to have emerged as favourite for one of the two vacant seats at sister Red Bull team Toro Rosso and will drive on all three days.

Hartley will drive on the opening day before new team member Sebastian Vettel takes over for the rest of the week. It has been reported in various media outlets that Hartley was drafted in to test the Red Bull machine because of regular F1 driver Mark Webbers' absence due to injury.

Not so, as Hartley points out.

"To be honest, I got the call the day before Mark Webber injured himself. I know everyone thinks it was organised after his crash but it happened before that and I was shocked and was definitely not expecting it [getting to drive on an official test day].

"I got a phone call asking me what I was doing on the 15th [December] and I said I was testing Formula Three, only to be told I wasn't going to be doing that; instead, I'd be testing Formula One.

"I didn't ask too many questions and it was a pretty short phone call."

In the run-up to Monday's big day out, Hartley has had a seat fitting, studied a fair amount of data and gone through a lot of preparation for the track.

He will continue with all the other necessary nuances over the weekend in order to be at the top of his game, to make the most of this rare opportunity at the elite level of motor sport. "I felt comfortable driving the car earlier this year but this is going to be something else.

"Obviously I've got high expectations of myself but it's going to be tough and I'm not really sure what to expect," he said.

Hartley finished third in this season's British F3 championship with five race wins and finished his season on a strong note at the Macau Grand Prix, setting a new lap record while coming from 20th on the grid to finish third.