Klien, the unsung worker at Williams
After Pastor Maldonado's victory, the reasons for Williams' remarkable return to the forefront are starting to be explained, and one of them notably comes from the work done behind the scenes by Christian Klien.
The Williams team secured its first victory in 8 years last Sunday in Spain, thanks to Pastor Maldonado. The return to the forefront for the Grove team has been praised in the media, and one of the reasons cited was the reorganization of the technical team and the qualities of the FW34.
But that’s not all, in fact, information that had not been disclosed until now has been revealed by the Austrian channel ORF, which is the role of Christian Klien. The Austrian driver, without an F1 seat since his stint for HRT in 2010, works behind the scenes within the Williams team.
Even though Susie Wolff was appointed as a development driver and was supposed to work on the simulator, her presence during race weekends prevents her from being in the simulator, and this role has been assigned to Klien. He tests the settings defined by the engineers during race weekends and also evaluates other solutions to find the best compromise for the FW34. When the team in charge of these simulator tests makes a discovery, they inform the racing team so that they can test these settings in real conditions.
The Austrian driver confirmed the information to the Austrian press agency APA. He also took the opportunity to give his opinion on this 2012 Formula 1 season. For him, the standout driver is none other than Fernando Alonso, who joined Sebastian Vettel at the top of the drivers’ standings thanks to his second place in Spain: «It’s very open. But for me, Fernando Alonso stands out. Alonso has an inferior single-seater but he seizes every opportunity. He is the most complete driver who can make the most out of the car he has.»
