Living the Dream: interview with Robert Doornbos

Before flying out to Imola for the San Marino Grand Prix, Robert Doornbos endured one of the less exciting aspects of the job of Red Bull test driver on Wednesday, putting in some straight-line work at Santa Pod, the rather dilapidated drag strip used by some F1 teams for such routine jobs.

It was a far cry from his rather higher profile Friday running on Grand Prix weekends, but it comes with the territory. Not that Doornbos would ever complain - like his senior teammate David Coulthard, he's an amiable, easygoing fellow to whom good manners are paramount.

The Doornbos story has a fairy tale quality to it, because he fulfilled the sort of dream that so many of us had as youngsters, and proved that you can still make it to F1 without sitting in a kart at the age of five or six.

It was in 1998 that the teenage Dutch lad and his father went to the Belgian GP as guests of a Williams sponsor. They had passes for the paddock and even had lunch in the team motorhome, where they met then reigning world champion Jacques Villeneuve. It was an eye opening experience, to say the least.

At the time, Robert was more interested in tennis than motor racing, but the day at Spa inspired him, and he had the nerve to ask Villeneuve how to get started in the sport. To his credit, the Canadian gave Doornbos sensible advice - you're too old for karts, but there's something called Formula Ford you should try. On his return home, Robert pestered his dad, and eventually got his chance to sample a racing car.

The rest is history. With the help of well-connected manager Marco Zecchi - a Ferrari team manager in the Nigel Mansell era - he moved up the ranks quickly. By 2003, he was showing well in F3; in 2004 he was a race winner in F3000 with Arden.

In September of that year, he booked the third driver slot with Jordan for the final three Grands Prix of the season. Of course, sponsorship eased his passage, but many a world champion has had to finance his start.

By sheer chance, those first three flyaways were all races with a social angle to them - especially Suzuka, where Saturday was lost to the weather - and Doornbos met a lot of fellow drivers and important people in a very short time. He fitted in immediately, as if he had been born for the role of F1 driver.

He started last year in the third driver role with Jordan, before switching to a race seat at Minardi for the second half of the season. He made a good impression, but this year he's taken one step back to go two forwards, taking on the third driver role at Red Bull under his former F3000 boss, Christian Horner.

The fact that he found an opening when the team had so many other options says a lot. They are more than happy with his performance, and he's proved that he's one of those drivers who gets better and better on reaching the top level, rather than peaking as a champion in the lower categories. We caught up with him as he took a break from his testing activities.

Q: A rainy day at Santa Pod in April. How are you enjoying the glamour of F1?

Doornbos: "Today is very depressing! I woke up at 5:00am to leave my apartment, and we started here at 9:00am. It's just a drag strip with some old caravans around. I found a new motorhome, I think. I might take it with me to Imola! It's definitely the other side of F1, but it's good, we're having fun with the guys.

"We have some gearbox components to try, and it's just up and down, up and down. You can't even turn properly at the end, so they have to push you. The drag strip is so slippery where the real rubber is. Now it's started raining, so you're on traction control all the way to sixth gear."

Q: Just two years ago you were about to start in F3000. Can you believe how quickly things have happened for you?

Doornbos: "It's amazing, if you consider that the year 2000 was my first real racing season, to be in F1 already for two years now incredible. You never expect it, so yes, it's a dream come true.

"But I think I've been very realistic for myself. When I was racing in F3000 and I had all these people around me that had already tested in F1, I just kept focused, and I thought OK, one dream is to try a car once. Then the next dream was to race.

"Now I'm becoming a better driver, and I just want to become successful and have that feeling like you have in a junior series when you win a race. That would be excellent to reach that at this level, but sometimes I just have to pinch myself that I'm now here."

Q: You made your race debut with Minardi at Hockenheim last year, and fate ensured that you had that collision with, of all people, Jacques Villeneuve. What are your memories of that day?

Doornbos: "You want your first start to be something really special, and you can never predict what's going to happen. With Minardi, you had to set your goals a bit differently!

"But all weekend went just great. I got so much adrenaline from all the Dutch fans, and it was a dream coming true, so I was pushing a lot to make a good effort for those eight races.

"Hockenheim went quite well, although typically for a debut, the launch control didn't work, so I had to make a manual start. So if you see a replay of the race from last year you see one guy with smoking tyres - what's he doing? It started off quite badly, but there was some chaos on the first lap, so I overtook some people.

"Then I had Villeneuve behind me for about four laps. The irony was that we both went off, after he just hit me from the back. As a rookie, you always have to take the blame. After the race he told me that I wasn't in F3000 any more, and I should calm down a bit. I said 'yes, of course Jacques, you're the champion!'"

Q: You'd actually met him in China at the end of 2004, and reminded him of your initial conversation in 1998...

Doornbos: "He started laughing - 'you did it quick, in six years or something!' Then, at Hockenheim, on the truck that we drove around on before the race (in the drivers parade) he said 'you're really flying in your career, I remember my debut, have fun'. And a few hours later we crashed!"

Q: Was the debut the highlight of your time with Minardi?

Doornbos: "I wouldn't necessarily call that the highlight of the season. The new circuit, Turkey, was a very good one for me, because it was an equal playing field. I got to grips with the car quite quickly, because don't forget that the first time I drove the car was in free practice in Hockenheim.

"In Turkey, I could stay in front of my teammate in all the practices, and in the race I could beat him and the Jordans, so it was quite a good result. It's a strange feeling, though; the last race I'd done previous to Hockenheim was in F3000, and I finished on the podium and everybody was happy. Now I finished 13th and there were some team bosses saying well done. It was weird! But I won the mini Grand Prix in some respects, so it was a highlight.

"And the last one was good, Shanghai. My teammate finished it off with a bang [with his collision with Michael Schumacher] before the race even started! I had a good race, and with the safety car situation there was a bit to play for with Minardi, if you took some risks. I enjoyed it and I took the best out of it."

Q: You knew in September that Minardi were going to change ownership, and therefore you had to look elsewhere. How did you end up at Red Bull Racing?

Doornbos: "We were talking to Midland, because that was the only option to race at that stage, considering that Minardi were going to disappear. They couldn't really convince us what the plans would be or anything, and then we started talks with Christian Horner just to see what was possible, if the race drives were filled in at Toro Rosso.

"They weren't sure yet how to divide the drivers, but one thing was for certain - they were looking for some experience instead of a rookie as a test driver for Red Bull Racing. In Shanghai the talks were already quite close with Red Bull, so I had a good feeling for that. It would be nice to be racing in a good car, a better car than a Minardi. But we talked about it, and we said OK we have an option for 2007, so this is a good investment.

"You get to learn the team, you make more mileage than racing with Minardi, for sure. You can improve yourself. So I was sorted quite early, before Christmas. It's been a couple of years since I had such an easy Christmas!"

Q: In some ways, it was a surprise that they took you, considering that they have so many of their own young drivers...

Doornbos: "There were drivers out there, but they needed some more experience in Red Bull Racing. For us, it was a great opportunity, it's a cool family to be with, and hopefully I can stay with them. Nothing is impossible. I just have the feeling now that it's my chance to show what I can do. If they see there's potential in me, then maybe we can go racing."

Q: Have you been getting the mileage you expected?

Doornbos: "In the winter testing I was hoping to be more busy, obviously. As a test driver you want to be in the car almost every day, and you can't drive enough. We were quite unlucky with the problems that we had with the cooling, which limited our testing and our mileage, because at one time in Valencia I could only do one lap outings, so that wasn't great. But they recovered well, and then we did some proper tests.

"Now for me the next couple of months, end of April, May and June, we're going to be very busy. I'm happy about that. I would rather leave the Grands Prix Saturday night to know that I go testing, like I did in Australia, because I had a two-day test in Paul Ricard on Tuesday and Wednesday. For me that's great, because looking at the others racing is like killing yourself! Hopefully we'll be getting 200-lap days like Renault do, and I'll be very busy."

Q: Because of the need to save engine miles and new tyres, Friday drivers are even more important this year. Does that give you extra satisfaction?

Doornbos: "That's the good thing, that they give you a lot of responsibility. What I found in the team is that even though you've been racing in F1, you still need to earn their respect again, you have to start all over. First you have to show that you can be competitive and consistent with the laptimes, and then they give you more trust every session.

"On the Fridays, I know that DC and Christian [Klien] rely a lot on my data now, like 100% almost. And it seems to work out for me, luckily. Everything I say works! Also, to work with Michelin on the Friday is very interesting, because you have so little time to do so much work. It might be behind the scenes, but I think if they say good things about you to the team, it works well for your position.

"Obviously it's good to be pushing with the new tyres, and to see your name up there. In Australia I was flipping coins all the time with Anthony Davidson for fastest time. I just went for it, the first lap I got on the circuit, 110% until the last lap, and like this you can get the best data. Obviously you have to not screw up or go off, and be consistent."

Q: Your manager, Marco Zecchi, has been a big help to your career. Could you have made it without him?

Doornbos: "He's very well known in the paddock after so many years. I've met a lot of people in two years, and he's been around for 20, so you can imagine how it works. So he did open doors, and hopefully he will open more doors in the future. It's very important to have a guy like that around.

"Also, I have to thank Harry Muermans a lot. He was my sponsor and brought me into F1 with Minardi, and he's so passionate about the sport. I have great people around me. My sister is also part of it, and I have to thank her for the stuff she does in Holland with the fans and the website. It's going well."

Q: There was a lot of talk about your relationship with Christijan Albers at Minardi last year. How was it?

Doornbos: "It's just with two Dutch guys in the team everybody thinks that we shot each other at the breakfast table. The thing was that we had no contact. We're different guys, and I know that in other teams the drivers don't talk a lot to each other.

"I tried to make some jokes with him. I went to Shanghai market and bought him this really funny underwear, a thong for men in a very fluorescent colour, and it was written Calvin Klien with double K or something - really fake stuff - and I just put it there for race day. It was our last race together, and I thought maybe he could laugh about it, but he couldn't!"

Q: The Dutch fans were very enthusiastic about Jos Verstappen. What sort of support are you getting at home?

Doornbos: "We had a fan club day recently at an indoor ski place in Rotterdam, with over 800 people. I was on a plane to Barcelona last week with Nico [Rosberg] and I told him about it. He said, are you joking? He had no idea that sort of thing existed.

"I think it's just the mentality of the Dutch people. They're such fans of F1, especially now with two guys involved. To have some of Jos's fans come over is great, and hopefully some day the club will be as big as his, because he was very successful with it."

Q: And you had a good day?

Doornbos: "Yes, we tried to do things with a really relaxed atmosphere. To be honest, F1 hasn't change me a bit. We had F1 simulators, and most of the fans kicked my arse on them, because they'd been practising so much. We did some snowboarding, which I was better at. Just some fun stuff. Then in the bar at night we had a DJ from Red Bull. There was enough Red Bulls to drink for the whole of Holland, so it was good."

Q: You're now living in Henley-on-Thames, which is a rather quaint historic English town. Why did you chose it as your base?

Doornbos: "The human performance group from Red Bull are based in the Henley area - two physios, one trainer and one chiropractor. For me, it was a good idea to be based in the UK and be able to go to the factory a lot, and I think it's quite important with so many people working in the team. I

"t's not like I go to the factory and see if I can help the mechanics change a gearbox, but it's good for the bonding. Ben Agathangelou [the aero chief] showed me the new wind tunnel. It can improve you as a driver to know about all this stuff.

"To be honest, Henley is not too bad. I slept there for the first time two nights ago, after paying two months' rent while I was travelling! I have quite a nice place, and all the guys in the team are taking the piss, saying it's a really posh town. But if you live in Milton Keynes, it must be different!"

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- The Autosport.com Team

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