Klien in for six races?

Christian Klien returns to the Red Bull race seat at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix and it's possible the young Austrian may stay there for the next six races. Klien carried out the third driver duties for the last four events while Tonio Liuzzi had his chance in competition, and now the Austrian will be racing for at least the next four GPs.

Thursday FIA press conference: Christian Klien and Kimi Raikkonen.

Photo by xpb.cc.

France and Britain, a week apart, follow the similarly scheduled Canada and America races, then comes Hockenheim and the Hungaroring, also only separated by a week. It's a very busy period and it would make sense to keep Klien in the race seat.

"Christian will certainly do the next four races, they are both back to back events," said Red Bull sporting director Christian Horner. "We'll keep evaluating the situation but it's likely he'll do that sequence as well as Germany and Budapest."

Liuzzi will sit out the next two races as Scott Speed will take over the third driver role for the North American events. Red Bull seems to have a surfeit of drivers at the moment but the swapping and changing has its downfalls.

Every time Klien and Liuzzi trade places, the one that takes the race seat is at a disadvantage in qualifying as he will have to go out first. The team knows this presents a problem and must decide if it's worth sacrificing a possible higher grid position to change drivers.

Liuzzi will more than likely return to competition later in the season but for the moment Klien is pleased to be back and believes he can be competitive. "I am really looking forward to it, I am happy to be in the car again and try to do a good job now," he said in Thursday's FIA press conference.

"I did third driver in the Friday tests, so I saw how quick I am relative to the other drivers. I was quite quick in testing, so I am pretty confident that I can go back in the car and be quick again and, for sure, try to beat my teammate and be in front of him."