Robert Doornbos

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Robert Doornbos

Nationality	Dutch
World Championship Career
Active years	2005 - 2006
Team(s)	Minardi, Red Bull Racing
Races	11
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podium finishes	0

Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2005 German Grand Prix


Last race	2006 Brazilian Grand Prix

Robert Michael Doornbos (pronunciation (help·info)) (born September 23, 1981) is a Dutch Formula One driver. He was the third driver for the Red Bull Racing team until the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix, when he was promoted to second driver alongside David Coulthard. However, the arrival of Mark Webber at the team for 2007 has forced him to once again step down to the third driver role. Doornbos will drive in Champ Car in 2007, almost certainly for Minardi Team USA.

1 Tennis Player to Racing Driver
2 Formula 3 career
3 Formula 3000
4 Formula One
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Tennis Player to Racing Driver

Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Doornbos' first sport was tennis, and he competed at semi-professional national level in the Netherlands. His interest in motorsport grew after he was invited to the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix as a guest of WilliamsF1. He gave up tennis and focused on racing, joining the JR racing team for the 1999 Opel Lotus UK Winter series. He had a successful season, finishing second in the championship after taking four pole positions, four fastest laps and four wins. In 2000, he competed in the Formula Ford Zetec Benelux series, finishing 2nd in the Belgian championship and 5th overall with one pole, three fastest laps and six podiums.

[edit] Formula 3 career

Returning to the UK in 2001, Doornbos contested the Scholarship class of the British Formula 3 championship with FGR Racing. He finished the year fifth in the championship, taking two poles, two wins and nine podiums. He drew attention to himself with a second place finish in the Formula 3 support race to the British Grand Prix. He then moved to the German Formula 3 championship with Team Ghinzani. He picked up four podiums, but no win. The year also featured a sixth place finish in the prestigious Macau Grand Prix. Continuing with the team in 2003, Doornbos competed in the European Formula 3 Championship, visiting the podium seven times. He took pole position at Spa-Francorchamps for the F3 Masters event, and finished 2nd in Korea.

[edit] Formula 3000

With support from Red Bull, Doornbos joined reigning Formula 3000 champions Arden International for the 2004 FIA International Formula 3000 Championship. Partnered with Vitantonio Liuzzi, Doornbos claimed Rookie of the Year after finishing third in the championship. During the year, he took a fastest lap and four podium finishes, including a race win at Spa-Francorchamps.

[edit] Formula One

[edit] Test Driver - Jordan

Prior to the 2004 Chinese Grand Prix, it was announced that Doornbos would be the official Friday test driver for the Jordan F1 team, replacing Timo Glock, who had been promoted to race duties in place of Giorgio Pantano, whose sponsorship money had "dried up". Doornbos impressed as test driver for the final few races of the season, and was reappointed with the newly-sold Jordan team for the 2005 season.

Doornbos at the 2005 United States Grand Prix

Doornbos completed Friday testing duties for Jordan in all but two of the first 11 events of the year, with French Renault F1 test driver Franck Montagny testing at the European Grand Prix, and Jordan being banned from using a third car at the Canadian Grand Prix after using too many tyres at the previous race.

[edit] Race Driver - Minardi

On July 19, Doornbos was appointed as a Minardi race driver for the 2005 German Grand Prix onwards, replacing Austrian Patrick Friesacher, who had encountered sponsorship issues. Doornbos raced a total of eight Grand Prix for the team, his best result being a 13th position in the Turkish and Belgian Grands Prix.

Doornbos and teammate Christijan Albers became the first all-Dutch team line-up since Carel Godin de Beaufort and Ben Pon drove together for the Ecurie Maarsbergen team at the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort. The teammates, however, were not the best of friends, which made the internal competition only more interesting. As Doornbos became more adapted to the car, he came closer to his teammate and in the last few races, was often the faster of the two.

[edit] Red Bull

Doornbos driving for Red Bull Racing at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Minardi team ceased to exist in its previous form at the end of 2005, being bought out by Red Bull and becoming their Scuderia Toro Rosso team. Doornbos was unable to find a race drive for 2006, but Christian Horner, his former F3000 boss, had since been appointed as Sporting Director of Red Bull Racing, where he was appointed the team's test and reserve driver.

He thus spent most of 2006 testing at the racetracks on Fridays, ready to step into a race drive if either David Coulthard or Christian Klien are unable to race. In his role as the Red Bull test driver, he once more showed his talents as a racing driver. In the majority of the Grand Prix tests on Fridays, he was to be found in the top 10, and a number of times he achieved a top 3 time.

At the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix, he was involved in a controversial incident with Fernando Alonso, which resulted in the Spaniard incurring a two-second qualiying penalty.

After the Italian Grand Prix, when Klien announced he would no longer be driving for Red Bull Racing, Doornbos was promoted to the second racing seat alongside Coulthard for the remaining three races.^[1] He entered with a bang by qualifying in the top 10 for his first race, in China. However, he touched Robert Kubica at the first corner during the race and the delay restricted him to 12th place at the finish.

He was subsequently signed as one of the team's test drivers for 2007, alongside Michael Ammermüller.^[2] This was because Coulthard and Mark Webber were already signed as race drivers.

[edit] Demonstrations

In his role as Formula One test- and racing driver, Robert Doornbos has given several demonstrations, both on tracks during other race events, as well as on public road. In the Netherlands, he has driven a Formula 1 car on public roads twice. In 2005, he was one of the drivers of the Monaco aan de Maas event in his hometown of Rotterdam. On August 15, 2006, he made the news with a fundraiser for the children of the 'Stichting Geluk en Vrijheid' (Foundation Happiness and Freedom). At a speed of 326km/h (204mph), he drove his Red Bull Formula One Car over the highway A7 on the Afsluitdijk in the Netherlands. ^[3]

[edit] Complete Formula One Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2004	Jordan Ford	Jordan EJ14	Cosworth V10	AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	CHN TD	JPN TD	BRA TD		-	-
2005	Jordan Grand Prix	Jordan EJ15	Toyota V10	AUS TD	MAL TD	BHR TD	SMR TD	ESP TD	MON TD	EUR	CAN	USA TD											25th	0
	Jordan Grand Prix	Jordan EJ15B	Toyota V10										FRA TD	GBR TD
	Minardi Cosworth	Minardi PS05	Cosworth V10												GER 18	HUN Ret	TUR 13	ITA 18	BEL 13	BRA Ret	JPN 14	CHN 14
2006	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull RB2	Ferrari V8	BHR TD	MAL TD	AUS TD	SMR TD	EUR TD	ESP TD	MON TD	GBR TD	CAN TD	USA TD	FRA TD	GER TD	HUN TD	TUR TD	ITA TD	CHN 12	JPN 13	BRA 12		24th	0