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Vitantonio Liuzzi
By Jamie Makin
February 26 2007
Vitantonio Liuzzi begins his second season as a full-time race driver for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2007 . Learn more about this talented young Italian here.


Birthplace: Locorotondo (BA), Italy
Current Residence: Pescara, Italy
Date of Birth: 6 August, 1981
Entered F1: 2003
Number of F1 Races: 22
Number of Retirements 6
Career F1 Points: 2
Number of F1 Wins: 0
Number of F1 Poles: 0
Number of F1 Podiums 0


Italy's Vitantonio Liuzzi may be one of the youngest drivers on the grid at the age of 25, but he has been racing for over half of his life. His career began in karting in 1991, when he was only ten years old. He won the Italian Karting Championship in his third season and got noticed by the international racing community in 2001 when he won the FIA-CIK Karting World Championship.

For 2002 he moved to the highly competitive German F3 Championship. The season's highlights included three pole positions and a win in what could be considered a home race at Imola, San Marino. His accomplishments earned him a test with the Coloni F3000 team as well as the BMW Williams F1 team.

The tests led to a full-time drive for Coloni in 2003 in the series that at the time was considered to be the final step on the motorsports ladder before Formula One. Although Liuzzi did not win any races that year, he performed well enough to take fourth place in the series standings. It was the highest a rookie driver would place that season.

In 2004 Liuzzi remained in F3000 but moved to the Arden International team. By now he had matured as a driver and crushed the competition in the series' final year. He netted seven race wins from nine pole positions on his way to a dominant championship. Liuzzi tied the all-time record number of F3000 wins with F1 veterans Nick Heidfeld and Juan Pablo Montoya.

He then moved with Arden team boss, Christian Horner to the Red Bull Racing team as test driver in 2005. He contested four races mid-season in a car-swapping arrangement with Christian Klien. Liuzzi contested the San Marino Grand Prix, the Spanish Grand Prix, the Monaco Grand Prix and the European Grand Prix. Although he failed to finish two of the races, he performed well in the other two. He scored his first championship point in his debut race at Imola, beating veteran teammate, David Coulthard in the process. Unfortunately for him, it was not enough and Red Bull Racing kept Klien in the race seat for the remainder of the season.

Liuzzi will race another full season in 2007 for Scuderia Toro Rosso as they head into their sophmore Formula One champaign. Nicknamed the "Italian Stallion", Liuzzi's charismatic personality will be a good fit with the small but passionate Italian team.

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