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Christian Klien Still Believes in F1 Future

Christian Klien insisted his time in the Formula 1 championship is far from being over. The Austrian has been testing for Honda and BMW for the past 2 years but feels confident that his time will come to return to the F1 cockpit in an F1 Grand Prix.

“F1 is my place and I have settled in really well in a fantastic environment. I am well aware that a second chance is often much harder to get than a first one, but I have something to offer that makes me confident that I can reach this goal. At 25, I have three years of F1 racing experience and I am now my third year of testing with a manufacturer F1 team,” said Klien in an interview for the Formula1.com site.

The Austrian driver made his debut in Formula 1 back in 2004, when joining Jaguar F1 Team. He ended his maiden campaign in the Great Circle with one point-scoring performance at Spa (6th place). He then switched to Red Bull Racing, where he consistently outqualified teammate David Coulthard in 2005. A year later, he was replaced by Mark Webber in the RBR lineup and had to stay the rest of the season off, before joining Honda as test driver in 2007. He then switched to BMW's test driving position a year later.

Since at BMW, Klien was allowed by BMW to debut in the Le Mans 24 Hours Race (ranking an impressive 3rd place), while also making his first appearance in the American Le Mans Series, at Petit Le Mans. He argued that BMW keeping him on track while allowing him to race in other series serves him and his team equally.

“BMW Sauber F1 Team is really professional on all levels. They clearly see the benefit in a reserve driver actually going racing once in a while. That's why Mario Theissen was kind enough to let me race at Le Mans and Petit Le Mans/USA, to stay in shape and not lose focus,” added Klien.

Klien hasn't missed a single testing session for BMW this winter, having taken a major role in helping Mario Theissen's team develop their KERS technology on track. He was confirmed as official test driver for the German outfit in 2009 as well.
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