Overview

Vitantonio Liuzzi is a 30 year old Italian race driver. He last raced in the F1 2011 season for the Hispania F1 Team, known as HRT. He has so far scored 26 points in F1 and raced in 81 Grand Prix's between 2005 and 2011.

Liuzzi began his career in Motorsport at the age of 9. He began Kart racing and in 1993 won the Italian Karting Championship. In 1995 he took 2^nd in the World Karting Championship and 5^th in the European series. He won the Karting world championship in 2001. He then moved to cars, finishing 2^nd in the 2001 German Formula Renault championship. Over the next year he participated in the German F3 series and San Marino International F3 race. Red Bull hired Liuzzi for the 2003 F3000 season and he finished 4^th overall. The following year he took the title, winning 7 of the 10 races. In November 2004 he was given a test drive in Red Bull F1 car and joined the team for the 2005 season, their debut year, as their 3^rd driver.

It looked like Liuzzi would take the 2^nd seat for the 2005 season but it was taken by former Jaguar driver Christian Klien. Liuzzi took part in Friday practice sessions but a deal had arisen meaning he would race in the San Marino, Spanish and Monaco Grand Prix's. He scored a point on his debut thanks to the two BAR cars being disqualified. After the Monaco GP he was given 1 more race at the European GP before handing the seat back over to Klien and taking up his role as 3^rd driver.

Red Bull purchased the Minardi team for the 2006 season and created the Toro Rosso squad. It was the junior team of the Red Bull squad. He scored the team's maiden point at the US GP at Indianapolis, however it was the only point they would score. It was a decent year for the Italian driver as he got lots of precious experience. In 2007 Vitantonio, or Tonio for short, was confirmed as their driver. His seat was constantly under speculation and rumours spread about him being replaced. However he was kept on for the whole season and took 6^th place at the Chinese Grand Prix, scoring 3 points.

Liuzzi was left without a seat for 2008 and took up the role as Force India reserve driver. In 2009 he was promoted to a race seat for the Italian GP after former driver Fisichella left for Ferrari. He raced in the last 5 races of the 2009 season and was narrowly robbed of points at his home race before he retired. Consistant top 15 finishes and strong qualifying laps led to Liuzzi being retained for 2010. The year kicked off in Bahrain with a points finish. Due to the introduction of the new points system that year his 9^th place finish gave him 2 points. The next race saw him finish 7^th and collect 6 well deserved points in changeable conditions.  9^th places in Monaco and Canada, along with a career best qualifying of 5^th, saw his season improve. A mix of retirements and top 15 finishes resumed and points had to wait till the Belgian Grand Prix were he finished 10^th. A joint career best 6^th in Korea topped off an improved year.

In 2011 Liuzzi moved to the struggling HRT. His best finish was 13^th in Canada which helped the team beat Marussia Virgin to 11^th in the constructor's title. The car was consistently off the pace but he pushed forward and matched, often beating, his team mates over the course of the season.