VITANTONIO LIUZZI

'Vitantonio "Tonio" Liuzzi' (born 6 August 1981 in Locorotondo) is an Italian Formula One driver, who drives for Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Contents

Karting

Formula Renault, F3 and F3000

Formula One

Racing record

Complete Formula 3000 results

Complete Formula One results

Personal

References

External links

Karting

Vitantonio Liuzzi, like most auto racing drivers, began his career at the age of 9 in kart racing (1991). Highlights of his early career include winning the 1993 Italian Karting Championship, and in 1995, taking second place in the Karting World Championship and fifth place in the European Championship. His karting career culminated when winning the Karting World Championship in 2001. He managed to beat Formula One champion Michael Schumacher in one race the same year at Kerpen, the German's 'home' kart track.^[1]

Formula Renault, F3 and F3000

Liuzzi then moved on to cars; he raced in the 2001 German Formula Renault Championship, finishing second. Racing in the German Formula 3 Championship, he managed only ninth place overall. However, in that year he won the San Marino international F3 race and had test drives for the Coloni Formula 3000 team and Williams, the Formula One constructor.^[2] Red Bull took Liuzzi on board for the 2003 F3000 season in which he finished fourth overall. He moved to the Arden team for the following F3000 season. There, he dominated, winning seven of the ten races, and taking the title with one race left.^[3]

Formula One

Liuzzi's form in Formula 3000 led to speculation that Ferrari might want to employ him,^[4] either as a test driver at their Formula One team, or at Sauber, the Formula One team with whom they are closely associated. Indeed, he had a test drive with Sauber in September, 2004,^[5] but ultimately lost out on a race seat to Jacques Villeneuve. In November, 2004 he was given another test drive, this time with Red Bull. This led to him joining Red Bull for 2005.^[6] Initially it seemed that he might be given the race seat alongside David Coulthard, but the team favoured Christian Klien,^[7] leaving Liuzzi with the position of test driver. Despite Klien's good performances in the first three races of the season, Red Bull abided by an agreement they made with Liuzzi and Klien before the season that they would both have a chance to race. They announced that Liuzzi would replace Klien for the San Marino, Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix. Liuzzi impressed, scoring his maiden point on his debut after both BAR drivers were disqualified from the San Marino race. After the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix he was given another race at the European Grand Prix, before his seat was handed back to Klien for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Following Red Bull's purchase of the Minardi team (renamed Scuderia Toro Rosso or Team Red Bull in Italian), Liuzzi was rewarded with a race seat in the "B-team".^[8] At the United States Grand Prix, he scored the team's first point, with an eighth place finish after a race-long battle with Coulthard and Nico Rosberg. However, that was the only point he and the team scored in .

Liuzzi was confirmed as staying with the team for the season at the launch of the STR2 on February 13 2007.^[9] However, after a poor start to the 2007 season, Liuzzi's future has been thrown into doubt, with team-mate Scott Speed being released from his contract (and replaced by Sebastian Vettel) on 30th June 2007 after previously claiming that the team wants to get rid of both of them.^[10]
On the August 10, it was confirmed by Toro Rosso that Sebastien Bourdais will drive for the team next year, leaving Liuzzi currently without a seat for 2008.^[11] Liuzzi's manager, Peter Collins, has confirmed that Liuzzi wishes to continue his involvement in F1.^[12] He has been linked to a role within the Williams team.^[13]

Racing record

Complete Formula 3000 results

() (Races in 'bold' indicate 'pole position'; races in ''italics'' indicate ''fastest lap''.)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	DC	Points
2003	Red Bull Junior	Lola B02/50	Zytek-Judd KV		SMR 4	ESP Ret	AUT 4	MON Ret	EUR 2	FRA 4	GBR 3	GER 4	'HUN' 9	ITA 4	4th	39
2004	Arden	Lola B02/50	Zytek-Judd KV		'SMR' 1	''ESP'' 1	'MON' 1	'EUR' 11	'''FRA''' 1	'GBR' 1	'GER' 1	'HUN' 2	'BEL' 2	'''ITA''' 1	'1st'	'86'

Complete Formula One results

() (Races in 'bold' indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicates fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2005	Red Bull Racing	Red Bull RB1	Cosworth TJ2005 3.0 V10	AUS TD	MAL TD	BHR TD	SMR 8	ESP Ret	MON Ret	EUR 9	CAN	USA	FRA TD	GBR TD	GER TD	HUN TD	TUR TD	ITA TD	BEL TD	BRA TD	JPN TD	CHN TD	24th	1
2006	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR1	Cosworth TJ2006 3.0 V10 14 Series	BHR 11	MAL 11	AUS Ret	SMR 14	EUR Ret	ESP 15	MON 10	GBR 13	CAN 13	USA 8	FRA 13	GER 10	HUN Ret	TUR Ret	ITA 14	CHN 10	JPN 14	BRA 16		19th	1
2007	Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso STR2	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS 14	MAL 17	BHR Ret	ESP Ret	MON Ret	CAN Ret	USA 17	FRA Ret	GBR 16	EUR Ret	HUN Ret	TUR 15	ITA 17	BEL	JPN	CHN	BRA			23rd ★	0 ★

★ Season in progress

Personal

★ Liuzzi lives in Pescara, Italy.

★ Previously lived in Hemel Hempstead, England where he shared an apartment with Red Bull Racing driver Christian Klien.

★ In addition to his native Italian, Liuzzi speaks English and French.

★ He lists Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell as his idols.

★ Liuzzi has three piercings in his left upper ear, left eyebrow and left lower ear.

★ His manager is the former Lotus boss Peter Collins.

References

1. Schumi returns to kart roots. BBC News, 28 October 2001
2. Italians get Williams chance". BBC News, 6 November 2002
3. Liuzzi claims F3000 title". BBC News, 28 August, 2004
4. Ferrari 'seek Liuzzi deal'". BBC News, 28 July 2004
5. Liuzzi given Sauber chance. BBC News, 2 September 2004
6. Red Bull take on Liuzzi and Klien. BBC News, 5 January 2005
7. Red Bull name Klien second driver. BBC News, 13 January 2005
8. Toro Rosso confirm Liuzzi and Speed". NewsOnF1, 06 December 2005
9. Toro Rosso confirms Liuzzi but Speed has to wait
10. Speed says Toro Rosso want rid of him and Liuzzi
11. Bourdais signs for Toro Rosso
12. Liuzzi aiming to stay in F1 in 2008
13. So what happens to Tonio Liuzzi?

External links

★ The official website for Vitantonio Liuzzi

★ Vitantonio Liuzzi unofficial Fotolog

★ An unofficial fansite for Vitantonio Liuzzi

★ Liuzzi Fan Base unofficial fansite

★ Vitantonio Liuzzi profile and statistics