Klien claims Red Bull deal

Klien told Austrian television station ORF on Tuesday that RBR had offered him a formal contract for 2005 - but admitted that there was no guarantee in it of the role he would play with the team.

Klien indicated that he and his manager father would look at the contract before deciding whether to accept it.

RBR has made no secret of the fact that it is still evaluating whether Klien or Formula 3000 champion Vitantonio Liuzzi will partner Coulthard this season - and one possibility that has been widely talked about is of a seat-share scheme.

The only problem with that scenario is that Klien has raced in too many grands prix to be eligible for a Friday testing role, meaning that if he was not racing then he would have to sit on the sidelines over grand prix weekends.

With Liuzzi lacking knowledge of several grand prix tracks, the most likely outcome remains for Klien to start the season, with Liuzzi acting as Friday test driver, but having to reach certain performance criteria to keep hold of his seat.