Vitantonio Liuzzi extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Vitantonio Liuzzi

Nationality Italian
Formula One World Championship career
2009 team	Force India
2009 Car #	21
2010 team	TBA
Races	44
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	5
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	2005 San Marino Grand Prix
Last race	2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Vitantonio "Tonio" Liuzzi (born 6 August 1981¹) is an Italian race driver who currently drives for the Force India Formula One team.² He lives in Pescara, Italy.

Contents 1 Karting 2 Formula Renault, F3 and F3000 3 Formula One 3.1 Winter 2004 Formula One speculation 3.2 Red Bull Racing 3.3 Toro Rosso 3.4 Force India 4 Racing record 4.1 Career summary 4.2 Complete International Formula 3000 results 4.3 Complete Formula One results 5 Personal 6 References 7 External links

Karting

Born in Locorotondo, BA, Apulia, Liuzzi, like many auto racing drivers, began his career in kart racing (at age 9). He won the 1993 Italian Karting Championship, and in 1995 took second in the Karting World Championship and placed fifth in the European Championship. He won the Karting World Championship in 2001. He beat Formula One champion Michael Schumacher at Kerpen, Schumacher's 'home' track.³

Formula Renault, F3 and F3000

Liuzzi then moved to cars, finishing second in the 2001 German Formula Renault Championship. Racing in the German Formula Three Championship, however, he scored only ninth place. That same year he did win the San Marino International F3 race and had test drives for the Coloni Formula 3000 team and Williams, the Formula One constructor.⁴ Red Bull hired Liuzzi for the 2003 F3000 season, in which he finished fourth. He moved to the Arden team for the following F3000 season, where he won seven of the ten races, securing the title with one race left.⁵

Formula One

Winter 2004 Formula One speculation

Liuzzi's performance in Formula 3000 led to speculation that Ferrari might employ him,⁶ either as a test driver at their Formula One team, or at Sauber, the Formula One team that Ferrari had a close association with as its longtime engine supplier. He did have a test drive with Sauber in September 2004,⁷ but shortly before he tested they announced they had signed former WDC Jacques Villeneuve to a two-year contract.⁸ In November 2004 Liuzzi was given a test drive by Red Bull, who hired him for 2005 in January.⁹

Red Bull Racing

Initially it seemed that he might be given the seat along with David Coulthard, but Red Bull chose Christian Klien,¹⁰ leaving Liuzzi as the test driver. Despite good performances by Klien in the first three races, Red Bull abided by an agreement they made before the season that both he and Liuzzi would be able to race. Liuzzi would replace Klien for the San Marino, Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix. Liuzzi scored his maiden point on his debut after both BAR drivers were disqualified at San Marino. Following the Spanish Grand Prix and Monaco, he was given one more race at the European Grand Prix, before his seat was returned to Klien for the Canadian Grand Prix.

Toro Rosso

Following Red Bull's purchase of the Minardi team (renamed Scuderia Toro Rosso: Team Red Bull in Italian), Liuzzi was rewarded with a full-season seat in the "B-team".¹¹ 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 the team would score in 2006.

Liuzzi was confirmed with the team for the 2007 season at the launch of the STR2 on 13 February 2007.¹² Unfortunately, during the first half of his season his races were plagued by mistakes similar to his former team mate's. He seemed likely to score his first points of the season at Canada, but instead he crashed into the infamous "Wall of Champions" at the exit of the final chicane. He also faced constant speculation over keeping his seat, as the team openly courted both Sebastian Vettel and Champcar series champion Sebastian Bourdais. His team mate Scott Speed claimed Red Bull wanted to replace both himself and Liuzzi.¹³Once Bourdais' contract for 2008 was announced, Liuzzi's performances improved. After being denied a world championship point in Japan by to a post-race time penalty, he drove what many consider the best race of his Formula 1 career in China. Narrowly missing out on Q3 by qualifying 11th, he gained three places at the start, then overtook Mark Webber of the 'works' Red Bull team, as well as the BMW of Nick Heidfeld. Throughout the race he kept pace with 5th-placed Jenson Button's Honda, and held off a late charge from Heidfeld to finish 6th and collect three points.^{citation needed}

Force India

On 10 August 2007 Toro Rosso confirmed that Sébastien Bourdais would drive for them in 2008, leaving Liuzzi without a seat.¹⁴ Liuzzi's manager, former Lotus boss Peter Collins, confirmed that Liuzzi wished to continue his involvement in F1.¹⁵ He had been linked to a test drive role with Williams, but it eventually went to Nico Hülkenberg.¹⁶ He then secured the role of test driver for the Force India F1 team on 10 January 2008.¹⁷ Liuzzi stated he hoped to move up to a race seat in 2010 as he is contracted until 2011, but the contracts of his teammates Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella would not expire until the end of 2009.¹⁸

On 3 September 2009, Force India released Fisichella so he could replace Luca Badoer at Ferrari, who had filled in for two races for injured driver Felipe Massa. On 7 September 2009, Force India announced that Liuzzi would drive for them in the remaining five races of the 2009 Formula One season. He made his race debut for Force India at the 2009 Italian Grand Prix and qualified an impressive seventh, given the fact he started the race with a heavier fuel load than his younger teammate Adrian Sutil. He was running solidly in the points, before retiring after 22 laps with a transmission problem.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
2001	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup	GM Motorsport	1	0	0	0	NC
	Formula Renault 2000 Germany	GM Motorsport	8	1	1	139	2nd
2002	German Formula Three	Opel Team BSR	18	2	0	25	9th
	Italian Formula Three	Opel Team BSR	1	1	1	9	8th
	European Formula Three Cup	Opel Team BSR	1	0	0	N/A	NC
	Macau Grand Prix	Team Carlin.Kolles	1	0	0	N/A	NC
	Masters of Formula Three	Opel Team BSR	1	0	0	N/A	8th
2003	International Formula 3000	Red Bull Junior	10	1	0	39	4th
	World Series by Nissan	RC Motorsport	2	0	0	2	25th
2004	International Formula 3000	Arden International	10	9	7	86	1st
2005	Formula One	Red Bull	4	0	0	1	24th
2006	Formula One	Toro Rosso	18	0	0	1	19th
2007	Formula One	Toro Rosso	17	0	0	3	18th
2008	Formula One	Force India	Test driver
2008–09	Speedcar Series	UP Team	10	1	3	45	3rd
2008–09	A1 Grand Prix	A1 Team Italy	4	1	0	7	16th
2009	Formula One	Force India	5	0	0	0	22nd

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (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 Team F3000	Lola B02/50	Zytek KV V8	A	IMO 4	CAT Ret	A1R 4	MON Ret	NUR 2	MAG 4	SIL 3	HOC 4	HUN 9	MNZ 4	4th	39
2004	Arden International	Lola B02/50	Zytek KV V8	A	IMO 1	CAT 1	MON 1	NUR 11	MAG 1	SIL 1	HOC 1	HUN 2	SPA 2	MNZ 1	1st	86

Complete Formula One results

(key) (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 12	JPN 9	CHN 6	BRA 13			18th	3
2009	Force India F1 Team	Force India VJM02	Mercedes-Benz FO 108W 2.4L V8	AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP	MON	TUR	GBR	GER	HUN	EUR	BEL	ITA Ret	SIN 14	JPN 14	BRA 11	ABU 15			22nd	0

Sporting positions
Preceded by Björn Wirdheim	International Formula 3000 Champion 2004	Succeeded by Nico Rosberg (GP2)

Personal

In addition to his native Italian, Liuzzi speaks English and French. He is also known for his piercings: presently three, in his left upper ear, left eyebrow and left lower ear.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vitantonio Liuzzi

• 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
• Unofficial fansite for Liuzzi and the entire Force India F1 Team
• Whatever happened to... Tonio Liuzzi? the red bullog

v • d • e Formula One teams Constructors and drivers that competed in the 2009 Formula One championship McLaren Ferrari BMW Sauber Renault Toyota Toro Rosso Red Bull Williams Force India Brawn 1 Hamilton 2 Kovalainen     3 Massa 3 Badoer 3 Fisichella 4 Räikkönen 5 Kubica 6 Heidfeld     7 Alonso 8 Piquet 8 Grosjean   9 Trulli 10 Glock 10 Kobayashi   11 Bourdais 11 Alguersuari 12 Buemi   14 Webber 15 Vettel     16 Rosberg 17 Nakajima     20 Sutil 21 Fisichella 21 Liuzzi   22 Button 23 Barrichello     Constructors and drivers that will compete in the 2010 Formula One championship Brawn Campos Ferrari Force India Lotus Manor McLaren Red Bull Renault Toro Rosso US F1 Williams TBA TBA TBA Senna TBA Massa Alonso TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA Hamilton TBA Webber Vettel Kubica TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA Barrichello Hülkenberg TBA TBA

v • d • e Force India Personnel: Vijay Mallya | Michiel Mol | James Key | Otmar Szafnauer Former personnel: Mike Gascoyne | Colin Kolles Current drivers: Adrian Sutil | Vitantonio Liuzzi Formula One cars: VJM01 | VJM02