Driver Dilemmas

By Ian Lockwood
May 31 2005

Its musical drivers time again at Red Bull Racing with Christian Klien re-taking the wheel of the second seat from 'Tonio Liuzzi for at least the next four races. We take this opportunity to look at performances so far and see what the future holds for the plethora of potential drivers.

Red Bull Racing has too many drivers on its books. That’s the view of some people in the paddock. Whilst Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz maybe new to ownership of an F1 team he is no stranger to Motorsport. The Red Bull Junior Team has been running for 4 years and currently boasts 16 drivers, from 12 nations, racing in 6 different series. All of these drivers want to make it to Formula 1.

There are of course only two race seats available at Red Bull Racing F1 Team and these are currently being contested by three drivers.

David Coulthard is the only man said to be guaranteed a drive for the rest of the season. DC, a seasoned campaigner and the second most successful driver on the grid today is just what a young team like Red Bull need. DC is a solid race driver and, just as importantly, is excellent at providing development information and set-up guidance to the engineers. DC has proven on several occasions this year that youth is no substitute for experience. Coulthard has scored 15 of the teams 19 points to date. What is less clear about DC is whether he fits into the teams plans for next year. Two young guns are fighting over the second seat at the moment and although the team has stated that reports they would both be driving next year were incorrect, the fact remains that at the moment DC does not have a contract for 2006. Get the man signed up asap – DC has done more than enough to justify his continued presence on the F1 Grid. His manager, Martin Brundle, has indicated that he his already talking to other teams. I’m sure DC would be an attractive proposition to BAR should Button leave to joins Williams, The potential Sauber BMW team would surely want to replace JV too.

Our Verdict: Solid, Dependable, Needed for 2006

Christian Klien started the season in the second race seat in a deal that sees him having to swap with team mate Vitantonio Liuzzi every three races. Christian drove for Jaguar Racing last season – a position which many said he had achieved only because he brought Red Bull funding to the financially strapped Big Cat. This was perhaps a little unfair as he did show some glimmers of promise, tussling notably with Kimi in Bahrain, Schumacher in Monza, and earning 3 points at Spa. This year with more F1 experience under his belt and more knowledge of the circuits he has impressed, scoring points in the opening two races and qualifying strongly in the third, only to be unable to take the start due to electrical gremlins. Christian has out qualified DC twice, but as yet he has been unable to beat DC to chequered flag. Klien gets his chance to shine again in at least the next four races – Canada, USA, France & Britain. From USA onwards  he will have the added benefit of an extra 30hp courtesy of Cosworth.

 

Our Verdict: Not yet the finished article, but rapidly improving. Needs some strong performances in next 4 races to earn a drive next year

Vitantonio Liuzzi is in his debut season. Last year he raced for Red Bull Racing Sporting Director, Christian Horner’s, F3000 outfit (Arden).  He re-wrote the record books there on his way to the Championship before landing the job-share role in the F1 team. In the first three races of the season ‘Tonio was on Friday test duty, setting a top three time at each venue. His race debut came at Imola where despite being first out in Q1 and and early slot in Q2 he managed to qualify just a couple of hundredths of a second behind DC. In the race he outpaced his more experienced team mate, beating him to the chequered flag and setting the seventh fastest lap race. Following the banning of BAR & demotion of Ralf Schumacher, Liuzzi  even picked up a point for eight place. His subsequent races though have been less promising  - a dismal Barcelona where he spun out early on due to traction control problems was followed by Monaco where he retired after hitting the barriers whilst suffering from extreme tyre wear and being put under pressure by Michael Schumacher. Given another chance at the Nurburgring, Liuzzi had an excellent start, getting up to 7^th place from 14^th on the grid, but then failed to match the pace of DC slipping back to 9^th just 0.4 secs outside the points.

Our Verdict: Yet to prove himself, but this is his debut season. A one year loan to another team as their race driver would be ideal.

From the Red Bull Junior Team, two drivers stand out as being closest to making the step into F1. Scott Speed & Neel Jani are both racing in the GP2 series (which has replaced F3000 as the F1 support series at European venues). It is no secret that Dietrich Mateschitz would love to have an American in at least one of his F1 cars. Scott Speed fits that bill perfectly and did his chances no harm at all in March at Barcelona. Given a chance to test drive the Red Bull F1 car which was his first experience of F1 and first time at the Spanish circuit, Scott set the fastest time of the day, beating both Nick Heidfeld & Antonio Pizzonia in their BMW Williams in the process. Scott will be testing again at Silverstone before heading off for Friday test driver duty at Canada & USA.

Our Verdict: Scott Speed has the right nationality, a great name, and the potential to become a full time Red Bull F1 driver in 2007.

Ian Lockwood