Doornbos' Delight

RD testing
By Ian Lockwood
November 30 2005

Dutchman, Robert Doornbos (24) is a very happy man. Having just signed as test & reserve driver for Red Bull Racing. "I want to become a successful driver in Formula 1 and we all know you can only become successful when you are at the right team,"

Speaking to www.f1racing.net at Barcelona yesterday, Robert praised his new team "Red Bull can be called a top team now. In 2006 they will be racing with Ferrari engines and have Adrian Newey working on the car."

Doornbos also hinted that he may even be lucky enough to get a few race drives in the season "Officially I'm Red Bull's third driver so when something goes wrong I can replace the other driver. Red Bull has been switching drivers a few times last season so I might get in the car for a race or two as well. My contract says I may do free practice, qualifying and races if the team needs me. Most important though is to do a lot of mileage in the car during testing (outside Grand Prix weekends), the free practice sessions on Friday are more the icing on the cake."

He also went on to talk about the Red Bull Driver Programme "At Red Bull it is all about performing. Everyone has to prove himself and if you don't perform well enough the team will switch places. It was pretty interesting to see that the team hired David Coulthard, a driver that wasn't eventually a Red Bull driver. Now the team has signed me up without having a big Red Bull history behind me. Maybe that gives other drivers hope to join this team one day,"