Who is Tonio Liuzzi?
Tonio Liuzzi was born on August 6, 1981 in Locorotondo, Italy. Like most Formula One drivers, Tonio began his career in karting in 1991, aged 9. In 1993, he won the Italian Karting Championship and in 1995, he took second place in the World Karting Championship and 5th place in the European Karting Championship.
Tonio continued in Karting until 1999, racing for the Factory CRG Team. Along the way, he enjoyed further success including winning the Ayrton Senna Memorial Trophy at Suzuka. In late 1999, in addition to his karting duties, Liuzzi made his single-seater debut, taking part in a Formula Palmer Audi test at Oulton Park. He set the quickest time.
In 2000 he continued karting, finishing 2nd in the Karting World Cup at Monteri,in addition to taking part in an F3 test with the Dutch Team Van Amersfoort.
Tonio's karting career culminated in winning the 2001 World Karting Championship, beating Formula One champion Michael Schumacher in one race. The Italian also got his first single-seater season underway, finishing runner-up in the German Formula Renault Championship.
In 2002, Liuzzi finished a disappointing 9th in the German F3 Championship, however there was consolation in the fact that he took three poles and won the San Marino International F3 race. Furthermore, in just his second season of single seater racing, Tonio was given test drives by both the Coloni F3000 team and the WilliamsF1 Formula One team.
In 2003, the Italian made the step up to F3000, and got the paddock talking with some stirring performances. Driving for Coloni Motorsport, Liuzzi finished 4th in the championship, having taken pole in Hungary, finished second in Germany, and six other top five finishes. For 2004, 'Tonio' remained in F3000, but switched to Arden International, which had won the 2003 title with Bjorn Wirdheim. To say that Liuzzi was the dominant force in F3000 in 2004 would be a masterpiece of understatement, quite simply, the Italian was supreme, winning seven of the ten races, securing the championship at Spa. Shortly after the title had been won, it was revealed that 'Tonio' was to test the Sauber at Jerez. The Italian completed 60 laps of the Spanish track in the Sauber C23, posting a best time 2.011s slower than the only other driver on duty that day, seven-time world champion, Michael Schumacher.
Following Red Bull's purchase of the Jaguar Racing team, Vitantonio Liuzzi was quickly signed up, as were David Coulthard and Christian Klien. Liuzzi and Klien had each their turn to prove themself in the second Red Bull, as they shared driving duties all year long. For the upcoming season, Tonio has found a race seat at Red Bull's second team, Scuderia Toro Rosso. He teams up with American Scott Speed.
Liuzzi, who's still single, lives in Pescara, Italy but he also has an apartment in Hemel Hempstead, England that he shares with Christian Klien.
