Christian Klien

Christian Klien (born 7 February 1983) is an Austrian racing driver who competed in Formula One between and .

Born and raised in Hohenems, Klien competed in Formula One for Jaguar, Red Bull and HRT, scoring 14 championship points across 51 Grands Prix.

Racing career 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. 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. 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. 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.

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

Red Bull (2005–2006)

2005 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.

Klien 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. 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 started 2006 strongly, qualifying in the top-ten for the first two races of the season. In Bahrain he finished eighth, 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 Scot scored the team's first podium and was more consistent than Klien throughout the season. In August 2006, it was confirmed that Klien would not stay with the Red Bull team for the upcoming 2007 season, or at least as a race driver, due to Red Bull's signing of Mark Webber. After the two points finishes in Bahrain and Germany, there was some uncertainty as to where Klien would go next in his racing career, speculation suggested the United States as a logical choice for Klien, but he refused a ChampCar seat in a Red Bull-backed team for 2007, preferring to chase a Formula One drive with another team. As a result, the team announced that Klien had been fired for the last three races of the season in favour of test driver Robert Doornbos.

Honda and BMW Sauber (2007–2009)

On 15 November 2006, Honda Racing announced the signing of Klien as their test and reserve driver for the 2007 season. 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. At the 2007 British Grand Prix, he replaced the injured Jenson Button for the second free practice session on Friday. On 11 July 2007, Klien was released by Honda F1 to test with Spyker with a view to replacing Christijan Albers who was released because of sponsorship problems. However, the seat went to Japanese driver Sakon Yamamoto.

In 2008, Klien signed as BMW Sauber's test and reserve driver for the Formula One season. He also signed with Peugeot to race in 24 Hours of Le Mans. Driving the Peugeot 908 HDi FAP he finished third overall with Ricardo Zonta and Franck Montagny. In October he participated in Petit Le Mans in the American Le Mans Series, driving with Peugeot's factory drivers Marc Gené and Nicolas Minassian.

Klien remained in the position of BMW Sauber's test and reserve driver for . He also returned to Le Mans with Peugeot, finishing sixth overall in a 908 shared with Pedro Lamy and Minassian.

For , Klien was understood to be an option for Sauber before the seat went to Pedro de la Rosa.

HRT (2010)

Klien was then tipped to become Hispania Racing's reserve driver despite being second favourite to ex-US F1 man José María López but neither Klien or López got the seat. It went to former Super Aguri F1 and Spyker F1 driver Sakon Yamamoto. However, he was later signed by Hispania as well as Yamamoto. He took part in his first Grand Prix weekend for three years at the , where he drove in the first practice session in place of Karun Chandhok. He replaced Chandhok again at the where his session was made difficult by problems with his car. At the , he was confirmed as a replacement for the ill Sakon Yamamoto, marking his first grand prix since the 2006 Italian Grand Prix. He qualified in 22nd place, over a second ahead of team mate Bruno Senna, and ran just ahead of him in the race until a mechanical problem forced him to retire. He replaced Yamamoto for the final two races of the season in Brazil and Abu Dhabi, but the team did not retain his services into the season.

Post-Formula One

After Formula One, Klien began racing in a number of categories including endurance racing, sports cars and V8 Supercars. He was close to a deal with Peugeot to race in the World Endurance Championship in 2012 before the French company withdrew from racing.

In 2014, Klien signed a deal with NewBlood By Morand Racing to race in their 2014 ELMS campaign.

In 2017, Klien joined the Bundesheer (Austrian Armed Forces) and will continue his racing career in addition to military service. He became an expert for ServusTV's coverage of Formula One from the start of the season.

Klien competed in the 2021 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters part-time by driving a McLaren for the Polish JP Motorsport team in a total of three two-race rounds. After making his debut in the third round at Zolder, he returned to the grid in the next round at the Nürburgring and in the sixth round at Assen. His fifth-place finish in the first race at Assen was his only top-ten finish in six races.

In 2022, Klien continued racing GT3 machineries for JP Motorsport, making a switch to GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup.

Racing record

Career summary

† As Klien was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points. Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Renault 2000 Germany results (key)

Complete Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup results (key) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DC Points 2002 JD Motorsport MAG SIL JAR AND OSC SPA IMO DON EST 6th 92

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results (key)

Complete Formula One results (key)

Sports/Touring car racing

Le Mans 24 Hours results Year Team Co-drivers Car Class Laps 2008 Team Peugeot Total Franck Montagny Ricardo Zonta Peugeot 908 HDi FAP LMP1 379 3rd 3rd 2009 Team Peugeot Total Nicolas Minassian Pedro Lamy Peugeot 908 HDi FAP LMP1 369 6th 6th 2011 Aston Martin Racing Stefan Mücke Darren Turner Aston Martin AMR-One LMP1 4 DNF DNF 2014 Newblood by Morand Racing Gary Hirsch Romain Brandela Morgan LMP2-Judd LMP2 352 10th 6th

American Le Mans Series results Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rank Points 2008 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Peugeot HDi 5.5 L V12(Diesel) SEB STP LNB UTA LIM MID AME MOS DET PET MON 17th 26 2009 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Peugeot HDI 5.5 L Turbo V12(Diesel) SEB STP LNB UTA LIM MID AME MOS PET MON 25th 20

Complete European Le Mans Series results Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 Rank Points 2009 Team Peugeot Total LMP1 Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Peugeot HDI 5.5 L Turbo V12(Diesel) CAT SPA ALG NÜR SIL 19th 11 2011 Aston Martin Racing LMP1 Lola-Aston Martin B09/60 Aston Martin AM04 6.0 L V12 CAS SPA IMO SIL1 EST NC 0 2013 Morand Racing LMP2 Morgan LMP2 Judd HK 3.6 L V8 SIL IMO RBR HUN LEC 11th 28 2014 Newblood by Morand Racing LMP2 Morgan LMP2 Judd HK 3.6 L V8 SIL IMO RBR LEC EST 3rd 68 1 Driver run for the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, no points awarded for the Le Mans Series.

Complete V8 Supercar results Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Pos Points 2011 Rod Nash Racing YMCR1 YMCR2 ADER3 ADER4 HAMR5 HAMR6 BARR7 BARR8 BARR9 WINR10 WINR11 HIDR12 HIDR13 TOWR14 TOWR15 QLDR16 QLDR17 QLDR18 PHIQ PHIR19 BATR20 SURR21 SURR22 SYMR23 SYMR24 SANR25 SANR26 SYDR27 SYDR28 77th 60 2012 Walkinshaw Racing ADER1 ADER2 SYMR3 SYMR4 HAMR5 HAMR6 BARR7 BARR8 BARR9 PHIR10 PHIR11 HIDR12 HIDR13 TOWR14 TOWR15 QLDR16 QLDR17 SMPR18 SMPR19 SANQ SANR20 BATR21 SURR22 SURR23 YMCR24 YMCR25 YMCR26 WINR27 WINR28 SYDR29 SYDR30 51st 168

Complete Bathurst 1000 results Year Team Car Co-driver Position Laps 2012 Walkinshaw Racing Holden Commodore VE Russell Ingall 9th 161

Complete International Superstars Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 DC Points 2012 Swiss Team Maserati Quattroporte MNZ1 MNZ2 IMO1 IMO2 DON1 DON2 MUG1 MUG2 HUN1 HUN2 SPA1 SPA2 VAL1 VAL2 PER1 PER2 17th 32 2013 Scuderia Giudici BMW M3 (E92) MNZ1 MNZ2 BRN1 BRN2 SVK1 SVK2 ZOL1 ZOL2 ALG1 ALG2 DON1 DON2 IMO1 IMO2 VAL1 VAL2 24th 8

Complete Auto GP results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pos Points 2013 Zele Racing MNZ1 MNZ2 MAR1 MAR2 HUN1 HUN2 SIL1 SIL2 MUG1 MUG2 NÜR1 NÜR2 DON1 DON2 BRN1 BRN2 18th 6

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Rank Points 2015 Team ByKolles LMP1 CLM P1/01 AER P60 Turbo V6 SIL SPA LMS NÜR COA FUJ SHA BHR 34th 0

Complete Super GT results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 DC Points 2015 Lexus Team SARD Lexus RC F GT500 OKA FUJ CHA FUJ SUZ SUG AUT MOT NC 0

Complete GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup results † Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.

Complete Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pos Points 2021 JP Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 MNZ1 MNZ2 LAU1 LAU2 ZOL1 ZOL2 NÜR1 NÜR2 RBR1 RBR2 ASS1 ASS2 HOC1 HOC2 NOR1 NOR2 NC† 0† † As Klien was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.