Robert Doornbos – Successful in F1 and CART

Robert Michael Doornbos was born on the 23 September 1981 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Doornbos drives for the Red Bull Racing Formula One team as a Dutch racing driver. When Robert Doornbos was growing up he had a great love for tennis. He took the sport seriously and even took part in a semi-professional national level for his home country, the Netherlands.

Then in 1998 Robert Doornbos was invited to be a guest of Williams F1 at the 1998 Belgian Grand Prix. It was soon after this event that he decided to focus on racing instead of tennis. A year later in 1999 Doornbos joined the JR racing team and took part in the Opel Lotus UK Winter series. Then in 2000 he took part in the Formula Ford Zetec Benelux series and the Belgian championships.

In 2001 Doornbos competed in the British Formula 3 Championship with FGR Racing. It was here that he was noticed especially when he finished second at a Formula 3 race that was in support of the British Grand Prix. Robert Doornbos then moved to the German Formula 3 championships where he drove for Ghinzani Team. In 2004 Doornbos became the official test driver for the Jordan F1 team. His impressive record as a test driver over the 2004 year led to him being reappointed with the Jordan team for 2005.

The year 2005 was also the year Robert Doornbos became the new race driver for Minardi. He took part in eight Grand Prix races with Minardi and reached thirteenth position at the Turkish and Belgian Grand Prix. At the end of 2005 Red Bull bought out Minardi. Doornbos became the team’s test and reserve driver, which gave him an opportunity to show off his talents as a driver. When Christian Klein left the team an opening gave Robert Doornbos the opportunity to be promoted to second position.

This position was short lived when Mark Webber joined the Red Bull team and was immediately promoted to number two driver. This meant that Doornbos had to step down to the role of third driver again. The number one driver for the Red Bull team belongs to David Coulthard. At the moment Robert Doornbos is driving for Minardi Team USA while he takes part in the 2007 Champ Car World Series.