By Ian Lockwood
August 24 2005

According to a report in Autosport magazine, Scott Speed is set to be announced as the full time test driver for Red Bull Racing in 2006.

Young American Scott Speed is a product of the Red Bull Driver search programme and has had the backing of Red Bull throughout his career to date. Red Bull boss, Dietrich Mateschitz, has never made a secret of the fact that he would like to introduce a US driver back into F1, and it now appears that Scott will be taking the penultimate step towards the goal of full race driver.

Scott is currently sitting in 3rd place in the GP2 series championship. Scott has already had a taste of Friday testing for Red Bull at this years Canadian & US Grand Prix.

Questioned about his future plans following the Turkish Grand Prix, Scott refused to be drawn - "As far as my Formula One stuff goes, we’ll be making an official press release in Monza, so you’ll find out then"

It is starting to look ominous for Klien or Liuzzi. Many 2006 F1 driver spots are already confirmed, including DC in one of the Red Bulls. The few remaining seats are waiting for the result of Buttongate II with plenty of competition. Both current Red Bull youngsters must be painfully aware that 2 into 1 doesn't fit.