Red Bull: Klien out for Doornbos

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While the F1 world was still coming to terms with Michael Schumacher’s retirement announcement the news also slipped out that the Italian Grand Prix was Christian Klien’s last as a Red Bull driver. He will be free to drink whatever he pleases next year…

The team’s test driver, 2005 Minardi racer Robert Doornbos, will take over for the final three rounds.

Klien’s partnership with Red Bull has ended acrimoniously, with the Austrian unhappy with their reasons for dismissing him after he had suffered a string of mechanical failures. He turned down their offer of a drive in the Champ Car World Series and is expected to turn up at the new Spyker-MF1 team next year, possibly even turning out for them as a Friday driver before the season is over.

Ironically, if he had gone to Champ Car, he would have found himself up against the driver he squeezed out of Formula One – Justin Wilson. Wilson, who now drives for RuSport, was squeezed out of the second Jaguar seat alongside Mark Webber at the insistence of Red Bull who sponsored the team at the time.

And who replaces Klien at Red Bull next year? Yep – Mark Webber.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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