Christian Klien admits he still harbours dreams of forging a career racing in
Formula One, despite pledging his immediate future to Honda as a test driver in a bid to keep himself involved in the sport following his split from
Red Bull.
Something of a surprise signing for Honda after it was expected Gary Paffett would take over the revered role from the
Super Aguri bound
Anthony Davidson, Klien's three seasons in Formula One for Red Bull and its predecessor Jaguar Racing supposedly made him the ideal choice in the team's search for experience.
It has been a turbulent few months for the Klien, who spent three seasons overshadowed by
Mark Webber and then by
David Coulthard, before the young Austrian parted company with career-defining sponsor Red Bull ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix when the team revealed he wouldn't be racing for them in 2007.
It was thought that Klien was now chasing the one remaining seat, barring
McLaren, on the grid, at the burgeoning Spyker team. However, with the squad seemingly edging towards either Tiago Monteiro or
Adrian Sutil, Klien challenged for a berth at Honda instead, even turning down a guaranteed race drive with Red Bull in the Champ Car World Series to keep his
F1 aspirations alive.
However, while Klien does concede that switching from a race seat to a testing role may seem like a step back, he maintains that this is good for his career in the long run.
“When the Red Bull seats were assigned without me, I took up contact immediately with all teams, to see if anywhere was free,” he told the Austrian
Kleine Zeitung newspaper. “It may be at first seem like a step back, but the possibility of developing me further at a top team such as Honda is incomparably better.”
Indeed, having seen Davidson build a reputation as a fine driver on the strength of his time with
Honda, Klien is hoping he will be able to forge a similar reputation for himself and maybe repeat counterpart Alex Wurz's route back into Formula One in the future.
