Team sources told Reuters on Thursday that an announcement
was expected later.
There was no official comment from Spanish-owned HRT but Toro
Rosso reserve driver Ricciardo was quoted in the Australian Herald Sun
newspaper as confirming the news.
"It's pretty, pretty exciting," he said. "To
make the first one at Silverstone, it's great. It's a circuit I know well and
it's just up the road from my second home in Britain." While Australian
Mark Webber, last year's winner at Silverstone, will be expecting to be in the
running for a repeat victory with champions Red Bull, Ricciardo can hope only
to get to the finish.
HRT have yet to score a point since their debut at the start
of 2010.
Karthikeyan, the only Indian to score a point in Formula
One, was making his comeback this season after racing for Jordan in 2005.
A team source said the Indian was still expected to race for
HRT in his inaugural home grand prix in New Delhi in October.
Ricciardo, who turns 22 on Friday, has taken part in Friday
practice for Toro Rosso this season and has been tipped to get a full race
drive with that Red Bull-owned team next year.
"He should learn the team, all the race tracks, to work
together with the engineers, get a little bit of knowledge about the press
work, about the marketing and this should be the preparation for him to race
for Toro Rosso in 2012," team principal Franz Tost said in May.
The highly rated Australian was British Formula Three
champion in 2009 and has impressed with his Friday performances.
Many in the paddock had expected the Australian to replace
Jaime Alguersuari in the Toro Rosso line-up before the end of the season but
the Spaniard has scored eight points in his last two races.
His team mate at HRT will be Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi, who
aso raced previously for Toro Rosso and Red Bull and will provide a good
benchmark to measure Ricciardo's talent.
It will be the second year in a row that HRT have dropped an
Indian driver and second time they have rung the changes for Silverstone.
Last
year, the team drafted in Japan's Sakon Yamamoto in place of Brazilian Bruno
Senna and made several further changes over the rest of the season with Indian
Karun Chandhok dropped at the following race in Germany.
