Born: 6th August 1981
Birthplace: Locorotondo, Italy
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Red Bull: 2005
Toro Rosso: 2006-2007
Force India: 2008-2010
HRT: 2011
Career stats
Karting specialist Vitantonio Liuzzi won the FIA Karting championship in 2001 and three years later became the last-ever Formula 3000 champion.
He was considered a serious prospect for F1 success but his career faltered when he reached the top flight.
Red Bull
Liuzzi entered an unusual drive-share arrangement with Christian Klien at Red Bull in 2005. But he got the worse side of the deal, starting just four races.
Toro Rosso
For 2006 he got a full-time slot at the new ‘junior’ Red Bull team, Toro Rosso.
In a solid debut year he marked himself out as a strong qualifier, often dragging the Toro Rosso through to the second stage of qualifying, and put a surprisingly bold pass on Michael Schumacher at Melbourne.
He was retained for 2007 and although the team struggled with reliability Liuzzi lost his seat for 2008 to Sebastien Bourdais.
Force India
The Italian became a test driver for another new team, Force India.
In 2009 he appeared for Italy in A1 Grand Prix, and was later called up to Force India’s race squad at the Italian Grand Prix to replace Giancarlo Fisichella.
Despite being drafted in at short notice Liuzzi drove well at Monza and beat Sutil in the last race of the year. The team decided he’d done enough to keep his race seat for 2010.
But Liuzzi usually trailed team mate Sutil in his first full season of F1 racing in three years. A notable exception was Korea, where he persevered in difficult conditions to finish sixth.
He was dropped at the end of the season and replaced by Paul di Resta.
HRT
Liuzzi did a test session for HRT early in 2011. A few weeks later the team confirmed he would be drive for them during the season alongside Narain Karthikeyan.
Karthikeyan was seldom troubled by his team mate, who had been out of F1 action for five years. Mid-way through the season Karthikeyan was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo, who proved more of a challenge.
The team swapped Karthikeyan for Liuzzi at the Indian Grand Prix as a one-off, Liuzzi returning to the car at the next race.
Career stats
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |
| Championship position | 24 | 19 | 18 | 22 | 15 | 13 | |
| Points | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 21 | 0 |
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