Although all this speculation is fun (and we could have even more options if we considered the whole “gives you wings” slogan), Red Bull won’t go ahead and make HRT their official & public second second team. If you know what I mean.
They’re using the opportunity to let Ricciardo make his mark and try show off what he can do. Although some people are claiming the Hispania is such a terrible car, this ought to be a full-on catastrophy anyway, it does not appear to be the case. Daniel will have to beat Tonio quickly and try to get that car as close as possible to Virgin. If he is able to do that, I’m sure he’ll be the talk of the town, ahem, pardon, of the track. And ka-ching for the carmine cow, they have a driver getting used to half of the F1 tracks on the calendar who can wall a car without Red Bull suffering any sort of damage (including for their public image) and under pressure to perform as quickly and as well as possible (ruh-roh, there goes Vettel racing career strategy).
Basically, HRT is their muddy buddy at this stage. It’s like a paper tissue: use it, throw it.
