Christian Klien

Christian Klien (born 7 February 1983) is an Austrian former Formula One racing driver.

In total he has scored 14 points in Formula One.

Klien currently competes full-time in the GT World Challenge Europe for JP Motorsport.

Born in Hohenems, Klien started his motorsport career in his early teens.

He raced in karting championships in both Austria and Switzerland, before moving to Formula BMW.

After winning several titles in lower Formulas, Klien moved into Formula One, driving for the Jaguar Racing team, alongside Mark Webber.

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.

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.

Continuing in the series in 2001, Klien managed to win five races, and ended up third in the series.

Joining JD Motorsport for the Italian winter Formula Renault series, he won one event, which led to a drive for the team in German Formula Renault for 2002.

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.

In December 2003, Klien was signed as a race driver for the Jaguar Formula One team for the 2004 season, replacing Justin Wilson, who had replaced Antônio Pizzonia for the final five Grands Prix of the 2003 season.

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 four occasions out of the possible 18.

Klien's only points scoring finish in his debut season came in Belgium, where Klien finished sixth; scoring three Championship points.

At the end of 2004, however, Jaguar sold its Formula One team to Red Bull, which renamed it Red Bull Racing.

In an unusual arrangement, Klien shared a race seat with Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Jaguar were bought out in November 2004 by Austrian energy drink company Red Bull and were renamed Red Bull Racing.

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 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 four rounds in San Marino, Spain, Monaco and the European Grands Prix instead of Klien.

Originally, Klien was ineligible 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.

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.

He stayed at Red Bull for 2006, whilst Liuzzi moved to the Red Bull junior team, Scuderia Toro Rosso.

After an unsuccessful 2006, Klien's old teammate Mark Webber replaced him for the 2007 season, news Klien learned from Webber himself.

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 (which was renamed Scuderia Toro Rosso, Italian for "Team Red Bull") in 2006.

Klien finished his second year in Formula One with two further points finishes: an eighth-place finish in Turkey and a fifth at the season-finale in China.

Klien started 2006 strongly, qualifying in the top-ten for the first two races of the season.

In Bahrain he finished 8th, scoring a point.

Klien was offered alternatives to Formula One for 2007, including driving in the ChampCar series, but he refused and aimed for a seat in Formula One.

He secured the test driver's seat at Honda, despite competition from other drivers, including Gary Paffett.

On 2 February 2008 Klien signed as BMW Sauber's reserve and test driver for the 2008 Formula One season, alongside Estonian Marko Asmer.

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.

He finished alongside Cristiano da Matta and Nick Heidfeld in joint 16th in the Drivers' Championship.