Christian
Klien

Christian Klien was born on 7 February 1983 in Hohenems, Austria. He started karting at the age of 13 and won the Swiss title in 1996. He moved into Formula BMW in 1999 and finished third overall in 2001. In 2002 he won the German Formula Renault title. In 2003 he was runner-up to Ryan Briscoe in the Formula Three Euroseries with Mücke Motorsport, and he also won the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort.

Klien made his Formula One debut with Jaguar in 2004, partnering Mark Webber. He finished sixth in Belgium for three championship points and ended the season 16th in the standings. Red Bull took over the Jaguar team that same year, and Klien stayed with Red Bull Racing for 2005 and 2006. In 2005 he shared the seat for a time with Vitantonio Liuzzi, who was slated to drive four races in his place. Klien finished eighth in Turkey and fifth in the season finale in China, and ended the year 15th in the championship. David Coulthard was his team-mate in 2006. Klien took eighth in Bahrain and finished the season 18th. Robert Doornbos drove in his place for the last three races.

Klien was test and reserve driver for Honda in 2007, then for BMW Sauber in 2008 and 2009. During this period he raced for Peugeot at the Le Mans 24 Hours, finishing third overall in 2008 with Ricardo Zonta and Franck Montagny, and sixth in 2009 with Pedro Lamy and Nicolas Minassian. He returned to Formula One with HRT in 2010. In Singapore he replaced Sakon Yamamoto, qualified 22nd and retired with a mechanical problem. He also raced for the team in Brazil and Abu Dhabi. In total he made 49 Grand Prix starts. HRT did not keep him for 2011.

After Formula One, Klien raced in endurance events, sports cars and V8 Supercars, including the Bathurst 1000 alongside Russell Ingall. In 2021 he drove a McLaren for JP Motorsport in three DTM rounds, his best result being fifth in the first race at Assen. In 2022 he raced for JP Motorsport in the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup and Sprint Cup.

Source: Wikipedia, “Christian Klien”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.