Red Bull Won't Rotate Drivers Next Year
The Red Bull Racing team will have a fixed drivers line-up next season, team chief Christian Horner revealed at Silverstone on Thursday
The Austrian-owned squad have used Austrian Christian Klien and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi to fill their second seat alongside David Coulthard this season. Klien took part in the first three races of 2005 before Liuzzi occupied the seat in the next four.
Now Klien is back in the racing seat, although Liuzzi is expected to be given another chance later in the season.
Horner, however, has said only one of them will occupy the seat for the whole of 2006, partnering Coulthard, who renewed his contract with Red Bull this week.
"Basically this first year for Red Bull has been very much a learning year and David has provided a perfect benchmark for the rookies to be gauged against," said Horner. "Christian has developed well from a season in Grand Prix racing already, Tonio has come in and shown flashes of real promise.
"We will use the rest of this year to evaluate their performance and then, when we have all the facts in front of us at the end of the year, we will decide who will partner David next year.
"But it won't be on a rotational basis. This year we wanted to have a look at the two youngsters' potential and make a decision based on that.
"Tonio will probably get another opportunity later on this season, but Christian is definitely going to be in the car up to and including Hungary, then we will make a decision from there."
Klien, who made his Formula One debut with Jaguar last season, has scored four points so far this year. Rookie Luizzi, the last F3000 champion, has scored one in four outings.
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