Luckily for the Italian, the job went to him, which obviously made Klien's day one to forget. Although impressing everybody in a few race outings for the Spanish team late last season, the Austrian was overlooked when the team officials discussed their 2011 lineup, making the 28-year old a very disappointed man today.
“Still, we must keep our heads up and go forward,” he insisted, while admitting disappointment over the news that HRT had just inked a one-year deal with his former teammate at Toro Rosso, Liuzzi. His next aim is to secure a third driver role in the series, one that would give him the chance to hope for a race seat next year.
“I have said before that F1 is still the goal, and if the race seat does not work out, I will push hard for a third driver role with a clear perspective to run F1 races again sometime soon. It is not the happiest day of my F1 career but then again it is by no means the end of all days,” he added.
While trying not to spell it out for the media, Klien's manager Roman Rummenigge hinted that money was a big part of HRT's selection process these past few weeks.
“We have worked very hard all winter long to create an attractive sponsorship package which is quite a challenge in the current international economic climate. We were in very detailed negotiations with Dr Kolles up until yesterday. At the end of the day all our efforts were not enough to be on the grid in Melbourne,” said Rummenigge.
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