BIOGRAPHY
Starting off in karts in Belgium in 1999 and by 2005 in France, in 2008 Robin finished third in the KF2 European Championship category and runner-up in the French Championship at the same level.
In 2009, aged 17, he made the switch to single-seaters, contesting the Formula BMW Europe season with Josef Kaufmann Racing. Finishing third overall, including a win at Silverstone and six podiums, Robin was the highest-placed rookie.
The following season he won the Formula BMW Europe championship, taking 6 wins in the process, again driving for Josef Kaufmann Racing. The youngster also contested the Spa-Francorchamps round of the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup, impressing all by finishing second on his debut, finishing fifth in the next race and finally winning the third event.
Naturally, he stuck with the Northern European Cup in 2011 whilst also contesting the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0. Despite missing three rounds of the series, he finished fourth overall in the NEC - 1 win, 7 podiums and 1 pole - but won the Eurocup with 5 wins, 9 podiums and 1 pole. The wins included both races at Silverstone, and at season end he was forty-five points ahead of his nearest rival, Carlos Sainz, Jr.
For 2012 he took another step up the ladder, this time to Formula Renault 3.5 Series - the highest tier of the World Series by Renault - however, he had now joined Fortec Motorsports.
As in 2011, Robin won the title at the first attempt, winning races at Motorland Aragon, the Moscow Raceway and the Hungaroring, scoring five further podiums and four poles over the course of the season.
However, the season was not without controversy. In the final race of the season (Barcelona), Robin was involved in a collision with Jules Bianchi. The Frenchman passed Robin at the start of lap 21, and was soon under more pressure from Kevin Magnussen. Magnussen made an attempt to pass Robin at the Repsol corner, but the Dutch youngster moved to block him. The move forced Bianchi wide, and he skirted across the gravel trap and into the wall and retirement. Robin went on to finish the race in seventh place, but the race stewards decided he had caused an avoidable collision and subsequently added twenty-five seconds to his race time, thereby demoting him to fourteenth.
As Bianchi, who was 4 points adrift of the Dutchman, failed to score, and fellow title rival Sam Bird had failed to score enough points, Robin's title remained intact. In the days following the event, Bianchi accused Robin of intentionally running him off the road, a charge the Dutchman has steadfastly denied.
In October, Sauber announced that Robin would drive one of its cars during the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi alongside Esteban Gutierrez. As the highest-placed Formula Renault driver not yet attached to any established F1 team, the Dutch youngster was also added to Red Bull Racing's line-up for the test.
In the Red Bull he managed 1:43.233, while in the Sauber Robin posted a best time of 1:43.775, good enough for sixth and ninth overall.
On 23 November, Sauber confirmed Robin as its test and reserve driver for 2013. With the test role mainly meaning simulator work these days, Robin saw little on-track F1 action, other than two days of the Young Driver Test at Silverstone.
Away from F1, Robin found a drive in GP2 with Hilmer Motorsport replacing Conor Daly in time for the second round (Bahrain). Following a superb weekend in Spain which saw him win the Feature Race and finish runner-up in the Sprint Race, team owner Franz Hilmer said he hoped the Dutch youngster would remain with his team. After four more rounds of the championship he was dropped and replaced by Adrian Quaife-Hobbs.
He returned again for the Spa weekend but the best he could achieve was 9th in the Feature Race. He was subsequently dropped again.
With three successive championship titles under his belt, Robin is clearly someone to watch, a view shared by Mark Webber who, having announced his decision to leave F1 at the end of 2013 admitted that he was incredulous that nobody had yet snapped up the Dutch youngster.
On 21 January, Caterham announced that Robin would join the team as reserve driver, supporting Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson.
Taking part in the Jerez and first Bahrain pre-season test, Robin wasn't in action again until the post Bahrain GP test, which, other than FP1 in Bahrain and Silverstone, was his sum involvement in the team. He wasn't even considered to replace Kobayashi in Belgium, nor, unlike Rubens Barrichello, was he offered the opportunity to replace the Japanese in the latter stages of the season.
On 15 December - the editor's birthday (a note for your diaries) - Robin, reflecting on a season of utter turmoil and disillusionment with Caterham, tweeted: "I'd like to announce that my partnership with Caterham ends today. Many thanks to all the people in the team and all the best for the future."
And who could blame him.
