Klien out, Doornbos in.....

Kersh

Klien has lost his race seat at RBR, to be replaced by Doornbos, who brings 15 million in sponsorship for the seat.... :rolleyes:

http://www.f1racing.net/en/news.php?newsID=117789

Firewalkwithme

That really sucks for Klien but perhaps Super Aguri might try to pick him up since it doesn't seem likely that they want to keep Montagny. Then again, Aguri might want another useless Japanese driver instead of a talented European.

I hear Yuji Ide is being lined up to drive the teams' catering truck for the rest of the season.

Kersh

I heard Ide lost his superlicence...
What I dont get is that Red Bull own Klien, or at least his contracts, so it just doesnt make sense, esp that they want to be frontrunners, and that aint gonna work by chopping and changing drivers, esp to put a pay driver in a seat.

Firewalkwithme

Kersh wrote:

I heard Ide lost his superlicence...
What I dont get is that Red Bull own Klien, or at least his contracts, so it just doesnt make sense, esp that they want to be frontrunners, and that aint gonna work by chopping and changing drivers, esp to put a pay driver in a seat.

I know he lost his superlicence but he could still drive the truck

As for Red Bull, they certainly don't seem to be short of a few quid as it is so replacing Klien for financial reasons seems odd alright. The Dutch drivers always seem to have plenty of sponsorship behind them but $15m is just nuts.

Running Bing

Why the hell havent aguri looked to enlist the talents of antonhy davison? Surely hes a better choice than frank montagny for honda.

Firewalkwithme

Babybing wrote:

Why the hell havent aguri looked to enlist the talents of antonhy davison? Surely hes a better choice than frank montagny for honda.

It seems that they are only using Montagny as a stop gap because they want to get another Japanese driver. I think that's also the reason why they didn't get Davidson in the first place. Besides, Davidson might be better off sticking with Honda than driving for Aguiri considering that Rubens isn't doing so well these days, he might not have to wait long for a race drive.

Jonny Arson

Absolutely diabolical decision from Red Bull to give the chop to Klein.

Klien has steadily improved over the past year and IMO has been far more impressive than DC. He was given time to adapt to F1 and he got to grips with things in 2005. What logic is it to dump a driver after all this time just when he comes good?

Doornbos is an average driver. He will not improve that team one bit. I cannot believe for the life of me that Red Bull Racing are short of cash. They run 2 GP teams, are able to hire the likes of Adrien Newey. I reckon there's a deeper reason to why Klien has got the chop.

I hope Klien finds another drive somewhere but I'm doubtful.

Long live the pay drivers!!! :rolleyes:

Jonny Arson

Just did a quick few rounds of other motorsport websites and forums and the consensus is what f1racing.net are reporting is BS.

Klien took part in practice for the Spanish GP today in a Red Bull car as was Doornbos. Unless they are keeping things quiet for some strange reason I expect Klien will be still racing for RBR come Sunday.

Beekay

Zane from MTV2 wrote:

Just did a quick few rounds of other motorsport websites and forums and the consensus is what f1racing.net are reporting is BS.

Klien took part in practice for the Spanish GP today in a Red Bull car as was Doornbos. Unless they are keeping things quiet for some strange reason I expect Klien will be still racing for RBR come Sunday.

F1Racing.net can exclusively reveal that Robert Doornbos will replace Christian Klien after the Spanish Grand Prix weekend.

Doornbos must be getting the seat after this weekend

Corben Dallas

Klein no way is having a better season than DC, plus DC is leagues better than Klein will ever be. He showed some brief flashes of form (1/2 races only at Jaguar) but has done nothing since hes been with Sauber/Red Bull.

RBR have said that the next step is to get A lvl drivers into its cars, the appointment of Newney is a statement of Red Bull intention to compete with the likes of Ferrari, Renault McLaren etc.

The boss of Red Bull Dieter Metfscielle(sp) has targeted Montoya as a top lvl driver for RB to take the team(s) to teh next lvl.

Hes also hinted that Lutizzi/Klein will be replaced if they are the missing 1.5seconds between the technical development of the car and the monkey doing the steering as it were.

Klien has only been in F1 cause hes an Austrian, (Red Bull owner is Austrian/Austrian Company) with 'Hanger21' support at Jag, and the RB appointed driver in Sauber. Klien is a pay driver anyways. He wouldnt be in F1 w/o Red Bull support. Dournbos is worse but maybe RB wanted to spend Dutch sponsors money rather than their own.

Jonny Arson

Yeah it was BS rumours from f1racing.net............

http://www.robertdoornbos.com/?go=news&id=343

Rumours Robert Doornbos/RBR

''In contrast to what is published on the internet today, all rumours regarding Robert Doornbos replacing Christian Klien at Red Bull Racing are false. As has happened before, these messages are published by a website which is not FIA accreditated nor contacted Robert, the team or us. Therefore we are very sorry that people are mislead by this information.

Management Robert Doornbos"

It would have made no sense anyway to drop Klien and it also wouldn't have made any sense to drop a driver but let him still race in Spain.