Christian Klien had his first success in karting in 1996 before moving up to single seaters in 1998 in the Formula BMW Junior championship. The following year he finished fourth in the same series, winning four races. Later on he moved to the Formula Renault championship and became the German champion in that category in 2002.

Klien climbed to the F3 Euro Series in 2003 and won four races, taking six pole positions and nine podium finishes as well, which was enough to get a second position in the championship and to attract enough attention to obtain his biggest promotion for 2004: a place as a regular driver in Formula One with Jaguar.

With the blessing of team sponsor Red Bull, Klien enjoyed a solid debut season, scoring a solid sixth position at Spa Francorchamps. Jumping straight from F3 was always going make the season a bit of a learning year, but with the odd exception, the Austrian put in competitive drives yet was unable to match the pace of his more experienced team-mate Mark Webber in qualifying trim.

With Jaguar Racing being taken over by Red Bull Racing for the 2005 season, Klien went head to head with F3000 Champion Tonio Liuzzi for the second seat in the squad alongside David Coulthard and competed in all but four rounds of the 2005 championship for the team.

Klien finished in seventh and eighth positions for the squad in Australia and Malaysia respectively while an electrical fault ended his Bahrain race before it even got underway. Liuzzi took over the ride for the next four races, with Klien returning to the driving seat in Montreal. He would complete the season and secured a fine fifth position at the season finale in China. No longer a rookie; Klien was looking forward to a full season with Red Bull Ferrari in 2006.

2006 was a season to forget for Klien. The season started well enough with an eighth place finish in Bahrain, but he would have to wait another ten races before he would score another championship point. By this time relations between Klien and the Red Bull management had become strained and the drinks firm had offered a fully funded Champ Car ride for the 2007 season, having opted to retain Coulthard and recruit Mark Webber for its 2007 F1 campaign.

Following the Italian Grand Prix, Red Bull replaced Klien with Robert Doornbos for the final three rounds. Klien attended the Brazilian Grand Prix to continue negotiations with Honda and the Spyker F1 squad. Honda soon confirmed Klien as test and reserve driver for the 2007 season.

Klien made clear that he saw the Honda test deal as a one year option as his desire was to return to competition. With the blessing of Honda he tested with Spyker mid-season and then again with the newly renamed team - Force India - at the end of the season. Klien lost out to veteran Giancarlo Fisichella for the 2008 race seat while former team-mate Liuzzi landed the testing role. A few weeks later Klien secured the test role with BMW Sauber where he remains in 2009.