AUGUST 10, 2006

Klien gets a choice

Red Bull is happy to fund a drive for Christian Klien in Champ Car in 2007. The Austrian drinks company has proposed a deal to the 23-year-old driver although, he is keen to stay in F1 believing that he has the talent and is young enough to make a career in Grand Prix racing. Klien is still very young, despite the fact that he has been racing in F1 virtually full-time for the last three seasons, initially with Jaguar Racing and, for the last two years, with its successor Red Bull Racing.

Red Bull has, however, run out of patience with Klien and has signed a deal with Mark Webber and there is no seat available in the second Red Bull team as these will be taken once again by Tonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed. Red Bull is thus looking for somewhere else to park Klien and a Champ Car deal will do no harm at all for Red Bull's ambitions in the United States. As an alternative Klien could join the Red Bull Audi team in DTM either replacing one of the two current drivers or getting an additional car.

According to Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko, Klien has two weeks to decide what to do. Marko said that F1 is still an option in the longer term for Klien if he does well in America.

There is no shortage of Champ Car teams that would be happy to take the Red Bull money as sponsorship in the series is hard to find at the moment.