Christian Klien

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Christian Klien
Klien signing autographs at the 2005 United States Grand Prix
F1 Record
Nationality	Austrian
Car #	N/A
Current team	Honda F1
Team for 2007	—
Grands Prix	48
World Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First Grand Prix	2004 Australian Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix	2006 Italian Grand Prix
2006 Championship position	18th (2 pts)
edit

Christian Klien (born February 7, 1983) is an Austrian Formula One racing driver. Klien has yet to achieve a race win or a podium finish in Formula One.

Klien started his career in motorsport in his early teens; racing in karting championships both in Austria and Switzerland before moving up to Formula BMW. After several more titles in lower Formulas, Klien moved up into Formula One with the Jaguar Racing team, alongside Mark Webber. At the end of 2005, Jaguar were sold to Red Bull and renamed Red Bull Racing; Klien shared the race seat with Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi. The Austrian stayed at Red Bull for 2006, with Luizzi going to Red Bull junior team, Scuderia Toro Rosso.

After an unsuccessful 2006, it was annouced that Klien's old teammate Mark Webber would replace him for the 2007 season. Klien was offered a few alternatives to Formula One for 2007, including a drive in the ChampCar series, but Klien refused and aimed for a drive in Formula One. He was eventually given a test driver role at Honda despite competition from others drivers, including the likes of Gary Paffett.

Contents 1 Personal and early life 2 Racing career 2.1 Pre-Formula One 2.2 Formula One 2.2.1 2004: Jaguar 2.2.2 2005-2006: Red Bull Racing 2.2.3 2007 onwards: Honda F1 3 Complete Formula One results 4 See also 5 External links 6 Footnotes 7 References

[edit] Personal and early life

Christian Klien was born on February 7, 1983 in Hohenems, in the Austrian Alps to Herma and Hennes Klien. Klien has a sister called Carina.

[edit] Racing career

[edit] Pre-Formula One

Klien became enthused about racing when his dad brought him to watch a Go-Kart race. This enthusiasm for the sport was only increased after meeting Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna. The Austrian started his career at the age of 13.^[1] From 1996 to 1998, Klien won several kart races in both Switzerland and his native Austria, becoming the Suisse champion in his first year.

In 1999, Klien moved to racing in the Formula BMW ADAC Junior Cup, winning four races and finishing fourth in the series.^[1] The following year, he moved into the main Formula BMW ADAC Championship with Team Rosberg, finishing the series ranked tenth overall and third in the rookie rankings.^[1] Continuing in the series in 2001, Klien managed to win five races, and ended up third in the series.^[1] Joining JD Motorsport for the Italian winter Formula Renault series, he won one event, which lead to a drive for the team in German Formula Renault for 2002.^[1]

Klien won four races, winning the German title, and finishing fifth in the European series. From there, Klien moved into the Formula Three Euroseries, with Mucke Motorsport, winning four races and finishing runner-up to Ryan Briscoe. Klien also won the 2003 Marlboro Masters event at Zandvoort.^[1]

[edit] Formula One

[edit] 2004: Jaguar

Main article: Jaguar Racing

In December 2003, Klien was signed as a race driver for the Jaguar Formula One team for the 2004 season,^[2] replacing Justin Wilson, who had replaced Antônio Pizzonia for the final 5 Grand Prix of the 2003 season.^[3] He had significant pressure on him as second driver to his more experienced teammate Mark Webber, but was the first driver to ever outqualify Webber from the same team.

Klien proved to be considerably reliable over the season, retiring only on 4 occasions out of the possible 18. Klien's only points scoring finish in his debut season came in Belgium, where Klien finished sixth; scoring 3 Championship points. He finished alongside Christiano da Matta and Nick Heidfeld in joint 16th in the Drivers' Championship.

[edit] 2005-2006: Red Bull Racing

Main article: Red Bull Racing

2005

Jaguar were bought out in November 2004 by Austrian energy drink company Red Bull and were renamed "Red Bull Racing".^[4] During winter testing in 2005, Klien tested several times for Red Bull Racing alongside Vitantonio Liuzzi and David Coulthard. Klien secured the second race seat at Red Bull, alongside the veteran Coulthard. Klien started the year with points finishes in the first two races before retiring in Bahrain before the race had even started due to an electrical problem.

With both Klien and Liuzzi signed to race for the Red Bull team in 2005, Red Bull announced that Liuzzi would be racing at the next 4 rounds in San Marino, Spain, Monaco and the European Grands Prix instead of Klien.^[5] Originally, Klien was ineligable to be a third driver at these Grand Prix, as he had competed in over six Grand Prix the previous year, but after a majority of teams asked the FIA to remove this ruling, Klien was allowed to take this role at Imola.^[6]

The Austrian returned to the race seat for the Canadian Grand Prix and maintained his race seat thanks to his strong performances and Red Bull's increased number of seats from the purchase of the Minardi team in 2006.^[7] Klien finished his second year in Formula One with two further points finishes: an 8th place finish in Turkey and a 5th at the season-finale in China. After a promising performance in China, it was confirmed in December 2005 that Klien would drive for the Red Bull Racing outfit alongside David Coulthard for the 2006 season.

2006

Klien has started 2006 strongly, qualifying in the top 10 for the first 2 races of the season. In Bahrain he finished 8th, scoring a point. However in Malaysia he collided with Kimi Räikkönen on the first lap and had to pit with suspension damage, before eventually dropping out with a hydraulic failure.

In 2006, Klien was unsuccessful in comparison to his more experienced teammate David Coulthard, as the Brit scored the team's first podium and was more consistent then Klien throughout the season. In August 2006, it was confirmed that Klien would not stay with the Red Bull team for he upcoming 2007 season, or at least as a race driver, due to Red Bull's signing of Mark Webber.^[8] After the 2 points finishes in Bahrain and Germany, there was some uncertainty as to where Klien would go next in his racing career, speculation suggested America as a logical choice for the Austrian, but he refused a ChampCar seat in a Red Bull-backed team for 2007, preferring to chase a Formula One drive with another team.^[9] As a result, the team announced that Klien had been dropped for the last three races of the season in favour of test driver Robert Doornbos. ^[10]

[edit] 2007 onwards: Honda F1

Main article: Honda Racing F1

On November 15, 2006, Honda Racing announced the signing of Christian Klien as their test and reserve driver for the 2007 season.^[11] The Austrian made his debut for the Japanese works team at the Circuit de Catalunya, during the early pre-season testing during late November, 2006.

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Team	WDC	Points
2004	Jaguar	AUS 11	MYS 10	BAH 14	SMR 14	SPA Ret	MON Ret	EUR 12	CAN 9	USA Ret	FRA 11	GBR 14	DEU 10	HUN 13	BEL 6	ITA 13	CHN Ret	JPN 12	BRA 14		Jaguar	16th	3
2005	Red Bull	AUS 7	MYS 8	BAH DNS	SMR DNP	ESP DNP	MON DNP	EUR DNP	CAN 8	USA DNS	FRA Ret	GBR 15	DEU 9	HUN Ret	TUR 8	ITA 13	BEL 9	BRA 9	JPN 9	CHN 5	Red Bull	15th	9
2006	Red Bull	BAH 8	MYS Ret	AUS Ret	SMR Ret	EUR Ret	SPA 13	MON Ret	GBR 14	CAN 11	USA Ret	FRA 12	DEU 8	HUN Ret	TUR 11	ITA 11	CHN DNP	JPN DNP	BRA DNP		Red Bull	18th	2

[edit] See also

• List of Austrians in sports
• Famous Austrians

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christian Klien

• Christian Klien Official website
• Christian Klien profile and statistics
• Christian Klien statistics

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References