ANTôNIO PIZZONIA

'Antônio Reginaldo Pizzonia Júnior' (born Manaus, Brazil, September 11, 1980) is a Brazilian racing driver who has raced in Formula One and the Champ Car World Series.
Because of the place he comes from, Amazonas, he is nicknamed "'Jungle Boy'", though Manaus, his hometown, is a modern big city of Brazil.

Contents

Racing career

Pre-Formula One

Formula One

Post-Formula One

Complete Formula One results

Complete Champ Car results

References

See also

Racing career

Pre-Formula One

From 1991 to 1996 he competed in various karting series. In 1997 he moved to Britain and competed in Formula Vauxhall Junior; Pizzonia placed second, and won the Winter Festival. In 1998, in addition to taking the Championship in F-Vauxhall Junior, he won the Formula Renault Winter Festival. His 1999 season was even more successful, winning the British F-Renault series and finishing second in its European counterpart. In 2000, Pizzonia took 3 wins on his way to winning the British Formula Three Championship.
For 2001, Pizzonia switched to the Formula 3000 series, winning one race and finishing second in the championship.

Formula One

In 2002, Pizzonia was hired as test driver for Williams, but also continued in F3000, placing 8th. After impressive testing performances, he was signed by the Jaguar team to partner Mark Webber for 2003. However, following a string of poor results, he was dropped midway through the season and replaced by Minardi's Justin Wilson.
: Whilst driving for Jaguar F1 he was driving Steve Sutcliffe, a journalist for Autocar magazine, around the Jerez racing circuit in an S-Type R when he lost control into the first corner, rolling the car and hitting the tyre barrier. Apparently he accidentally braked at the braking point he had been using in his F1 car and just went off. The video is readilly available on Youtube.
In 2004 he returned to Williams as test driver. Before the German Grand Prix, it was announced that Pizzonia would take over from Marc Gené, who had been filling in for the injured Ralf Schumacher. At the German Grand Prix, he finished 7th to take his first 2 career points; he repeated the feat at the Hungarian Grand Prix. In Belgium, he briefly led an F1 race for the first time, but failed to finish the race due to mechanical problems. He claimed a further 2 points in Italy, but with the announcement of Ralf Schumacher's return for the Chinese Grand Prix, Pizzonia's racing was over for the year.
Prior to the 2005 season, Pizzonia was in a virtual shoot-out with German Nick Heidfeld for the second race seat at Williams alongside Webber. Despite Pizzonia's experience with the team and financial support from Petrobras, Heidfeld was given the seat.
Pizzonia was still employed at Williams as a test driver, and when Heidfeld complained of headaches after being concussed in a crash during the Friday Practice Session at Monza, Pizzonia gained the chance to race. Having not entered a Formula 1 race since the 2004 Italian Grand Prix, the Brazilian qualified 16th, coming through the field to emulate his 2004 race result — picking up 7th place and 2 points. He then raced in the Belgian Grand Prix. where he incurred a fine for taking out 2nd placed Juan Pablo Montoya just a few laps from the end. Pizzonia also took the drive in the Brazilian Grand Prix, but his race was over before the first corner after taking out his own teammate Mark Webber resulting from a collision with David Coulthard.
Despite some speculation that GP2 champion Nico Rosberg would be given an opportunity in the last two races of the season, Pizzonia completed the season for Williams. He retired from the Japanese Grand Prix early after spinning off, and retired from the Chinese Grand Prix after a puncture. Having been replaced by Nico Rosberg for 2006, Pizzonia's Formula 1 career seems to be over.

Post-Formula One

In 2006, he drove for Paul Gentilozzi's Rocketsports team in the Champ Car World Series' Long Beach Grand Prix and returned to the team towards the end of the season for races where Tonis Kasemets did not have sponsorship to race.
In 2007, Pizzonia was racing for Fisichella Motor Sport in the GP2 series.^[1] In May, He was dropped in favour of Adam Carroll after only scoring 1 point in 5 races. After that, he returned to Brazil and entered into competition in Stock Car Brasil, a Brazilian national championship. from July^[2].

Complete Formula One results

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Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Team	WDC	Points
2003	Jaguar	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	BRA Ret	SMR 14	ESP Ret	AUT 9	MON Ret	CAN 10	EUR 10	FRA 10	GBR Ret	GER	HUN	ITA	USA	JPN				Jaguar	21st	0
2004	Williams	AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER 7	HUN 7	BEL Ret	ITA 7	CHN	JPN	BRA		Williams	15th	6
2005	Williams	AUS	MAL	BHR	SMR	ESP	MON	EUR	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	TUR	ITA 7	BEL 15	BRA Ret	JPN Ret	CHN 13	Williams	22nd	2

Complete Champ Car results

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Yr	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	Team	Rank	Points
2006	Rocketsports	LBH 10	HST DNP	MOT DNP	MIL DNP	POR DNP	CLE DNP	TOR DNP	EDM DNP	SAN DNP	DEN DNP	MON 13	ROA DNP	SUR 10	MEX 12	Rocketsports	18th	43

==GP2 Series Record==

'Season'	'Team Name'	'No.'	'Races'	'Poles'	'Wins'	'Points'	'Final Placing'
2007	FMS International	09	5	0	0	1	24th ★

''
★ ''Season in progress.

References

1. F1 in the news
2. Entrevista: Pizzonia fala de sua vinda para a Stock Car

See also

★ News of Antônio Pizzonia (Article)