Just five race outings in the Peugeot 908 were enough for Christian Klien to select the turbodiesel LMP1 machine as his favourite racing car. A solitary win, achieved in the 2009 Spa 1000km when Audi stayed away, was the high point of the Austrian’s involvement with the Peugeot factory squad that came alongside his role as BMW-Sauber’s Formula 1 test and reserve driver, which precluded him from racing the 908 more frequently.
“That was an extremely fast car back then,” says the 41-year-old. “A lot of power, a lot of downforce and driving this car in Le Mans was just awesome. I had to be at all the F1 races so there were quite some clashes, but then there was a lot of testing in between, so I did lots and lots of driving.
“The fact that it had a diesel engine in, it was quite special to drive because you had a lot of torque from the bottom end, a lot of power. The range of RPM was obviously very short, but it was a great engine to race.”
His very first competitive outing with the car came at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2008. Joining Franck Montagny and Ricardo Zonta, their #9 908 finished third after Klien was tipped into the gravel at the Ford Chicane, losing three minutes on top of delays caused by faulty headlights that required replacing and incurred a penalty.
Klien looks on his first podium since a race-winning Formula 3 Euro Series programme in 2003, after 46 starts in F1 had yielded a best result of fifth in the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix for Red Bull, as an immensely gratifying experience. But he also acknowledges it was a double-edged sword.
“If you’re on the podium at your first attempt, it probably feels like it comes a bit too easy let’s say,” says Klien, who remains a regular in GT racing and retains a presence in the F1 paddock as an expert commentator for Austrian TV station Servus. “If you have bad years, you know how difficult it is to first of all finish that race, to be in a competitive car. To make it to the end of the race on the podium is not given.
Source: Autosport