Robert Doornbos

Watching the crash-filled 1998 Belgian Grand Prix convinced Robert Doornbos to switch his aspirations from tennis to motor racing. Within a year, he was runner-up in the British Vauxhall-Lotus Winter Series. Benelux Formula Ford in 2000 was followed by three seasons in Formula 3.

He finished sixth at Macau in 2002 for Team Ghinzani although he never won a race in the category. Second at Lausitz that year in the German F3 Championship, he repeated the result for the team in European events at Hockenheim and Magny-Cours during 2003. Doornbos was something of a perennial runner-up and he was second again when guesting in Alain Menu’s Dallara F303-Opel at Brands Hatch that autumn.

Doornbos joined Arden International for the final season of Formula 3000 in 2004 and was on the podium for his Imola debut. He won the penultimate round at Spa-Francorchamps and finished third in the points. He also made the jump to Formula 1 as Jordan’s Friday test driver for the last three Grands Prix of the season.

Formula 1 with Minardi and Red Bull

Doornbos continued in that role at the start of 2005 and graduated to fulltime race driver with Minardi from the German GP. He began 2006 as Red Bull Racing’s reserve driver and replaced Christian Klien in the race team for the last three fly-away races of the year. He qualified 10th and finished 12th in the Chinese GP, both career bests, and matched the latter performance in his final F1 start in Brazil.

Champ Cars and subsequent career

Rather than make up the numbers in F1, Doornbos joined Minardi Team USA for the 2007 Champ Car World Series. The championship was in its last season but he won twice, finished third overall and was named Rookie of the Year.

The Dutchman tested for Red Bull at the end of 2007 although the next few seasons were spent in the less rarefied ranks of A1GP and Superleague Formula. He did race in the 2009 IndyCar Series with Newman-Haas-Lanigan and then HVM. He qualified second at Kansas during what was an otherwise disappointing campaign.