Tonio Liuzzi News

[Anna]

#23 Vitantonio Liuzzi



Driver Info

Full Name: Vitantonio Liuzzi
Age: 30
Nationality: Italian
Twitter: n/a
Website: www.liuzzi.com/#/home
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitantonio_Liuzzi

F1 Statistics

Races: 77
Debut: 2005 San Marino GP
Points: 26
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Highest Finish: 6th (2007 Chinese GP & 2010 Korean GP)
Pole Positions: 0
Highest Qual: 5th (2010 Canadian GP)
Fastest Laps: 0
Drivers Championships: 0
Highest Championship Pos: 15th (2010)
Current Championship Pos: 23rd (0 Points)

Recent Championship Positions

2010: 15th (21 Points, 0 Wins)
2009: 22nd (0 Points, 0 Wins)
2007: 18th (3 Points, 0 Wins)
2006: 19th (1 Point, 0 Wins)
2005: 24th (1 Point, 0 Wins)

Team History

2005: Red Bull Racing
2006-2007: Toro Rosso
2009-2010: Force India
2011: HRT

Notable Achievements

2004 F3000 Champion

[Amanda]

'I had to brace myself and take my hands off the wheel'
Tonio Liuzzi September 13, 2011

It was a short weekend for me unfortunately. The accident at turn one was a real shame because, even though we were starting from last position, we had an amazing start and got past Daniel [Ricciairdo], both Virgins and we were going faster than the Lotus of [Heikki] Kovalainen. I went to his inside because there was a lot of space, but when I was side-by-side he basically pushed me to the right and pushed me onto the grass. It was a bad combination of him veering to the right and the track narrowing with the start of the grass and I found myself with nowhere to go.

Once I was on the grass I completely lost control of the car because we were nearing the braking zone and I couldn't slow down properly. Once the car was on the grass there was no stopping it and I ended up crashing into Petrov and Rosberg. I'm really sorry for them because they were just passengers in this sequence, but it wasn't my fault.

Once I knew that I couldn't control the car anymore I just had to brace myself and take my hands off the wheel to prevent any hand injuries. I was basically going sideways across the grass knowing I was going to hit an unlucky car so you just have a few seconds of thinking empty things and then wait for the shunt. Fortunately nobody got hurt, but it was still an unfortunate situation because it was not done on purpose.

I came away with a five-place grid penalty for Singapore and I accepted that, but it doesn't mean I agree with the decision of the stewards. They said that I caused the accident at the chicane, but this is not what happened out there. I'm not going to reject the stewards' decision, and at the end of the day it doesn't change much for us in Singapore, but that doesn't mean I agree with it - I know it wasn't my fault.

At the end of the day we crashed out on a weekend when we had a relatively good chance of a decent result. I qualified 24th but that was more down to who got a tow on Monza's straights in qualifying than anything else. There's always a bit of confusion on the outlaps at Monza because some people behave like kids in terms of brake testing other cars to get the slipstream. Of course a tow can be really important, especially for slow cars like us, but I didn't want to play those games on the outlap so I just did my qualifying by myself.



I then gave the chance to my team-mate Daniel to use my slipstream and at the end of the day he beat me by 0.2s because of that. Slipstreaming is something you learn to do in the smaller categories and I don't mind it, but for me the priority is improving the car because we are not fighting for pole or to even to get into Q2. After qualifying I was actually very optimistic that we'd have good race pace but obviously we didn't get to find out.
We have some challenging circuits coming up that I'm really look forward to, but my biggest worry is actually Singapore because our car will hate the characteristics of the track. The car doesn't react so well over bumps, kerbs and in low-speed corners and Singapore has a combination of all these things - I'm expecting a tough weekend. I think that Suzuka and Korea will be better and hopefully we will push even harder to get some new upgrades because we have slowed down a bit in that regard in the last few months. We were supposed to have something in Monza but it didn't arrive and now it should come at Singapore, but we need to push harder because Virgin is looking more competitive and we need to consolidate our 11th place position in the constructors' championship.

For 2012 we have had a few discussions for next year's car with our technical group to make decisions about geometry and everything that needs to be prepared ahead of time. We are working hard for the future and we hope that soon we will have a better picture of where we will be. One thing I can tell you is that next year's car will be completely different to this season's and I don't think we are planning to carry any parts over. Everything should be a big step forward.

[Pete]

I'm sorry... It wasn't his fault?

I like Tonio well enough but its a part of racing that sometimes you get pushed on the grass by another car. But I'll need to watch it again, I didn't think anyone was pushing him on the grass. Maybe I was wrong. Its nice he feels sorry for the guys he crashed into who really where just passengers in it all. But I saw it a few times on the day and it didn't look like it was anyone else's fault but his own. Not that he could have done much when he slid off.

[kelli52]

Tonio Liuzzi admits he is worried about how competitive HRT will be in Singapore because the car "will hate the characteristics of the track".

Following two low-downforce tracks in Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, the first of the flyaway races in Singapore represents a completely different challenge. HRT was unable to challenge Virgin on a Monaco track full of similar characteristics to Marina Bay and Liuzzi told ESPNF1 that the car does not perform well on the bumpy nature of the street circuits, but had higher hopes for later races.

"My biggest worry is actually Singapore because our car will hate the characteristics of the track," Liuzzi said. "The car doesn't react so well over bumps, kerbs and in low-speed corners and Singapore has a combination of all these things - I'm expecting a tough weekend.

"I think that Suzuka and Korea will be better and hopefully we will push even harder to get some new upgrades because we have slowed down a bit in that regard in the last few months. We were supposed to have something in Monza but it didn't arrive and now it should come at Singapore, but we need to push harder because Virgin is looking more competitive and we need to consolidate our 11th place position in the constructors' championship."

Looking ahead to next season, Liuzzi said he was expecting "a big step forward" in performance as the team develop a completely new concept.

"For 2012 we have had a few discussions for next year's car with our technical group to make decisions about geometry and everything that needs to be prepared ahead of time. We are working hard for the future and we hope that soon we will have a better picture of where we will be. One thing I can tell you is that next year's car will be completely different to this season's and I don't think we are planning to carry any parts over. Everything should be a big step forward."

[Anna]

Liuzzi: I have a long-term HRT contract

10 November 2011

Vitantonio Liuzzi has reiterated that he has a ‘long-term’ contract with HRT and will not be moving teams between the 2011 and 2012 Formula 1 seasons. Although the squad’s ownership may have altered since the start of the current campaign, the Italian is fully confident that he will be staying put.

No longer owned by José Ramón Carabante’s Hispania company, the Murcia-based outfit is now controlled by Spanish investment firm the Thesan Group.


“I have to say the team is changing,” Liuzzi began to explain on Thursday. “The structure is improving all the time and I think there are a lot of changes for next year, on-going across the next month. I think the structure has improved a lot during the 2011 season and we are now focussed on 2012.

“We want to improve and get better in the field and I feel these changes are going in the right direction. There is still nothing completely clear about how the line-up will be for next year, in terms of the setup of the team, but I think we are going forward.”

When asked to clarify his own position, Liuzzi replied:

“I have always said that I have a long-term contract with the team. We started this adventure and we knew that it could not just be a one-year situation, if we wanted to improve. The team hired me to help them develop and bring experience and I think everything is going well and looking positive, so there is not much to say about it.”

[Anna]

2011 end of term report – Vitantonio Liuzzi


0 point, 23rd in the drivers’ championship

Monday 5 December 2011 - 18h19, by Sandrine Bouchard
Vitantonio Liuzzi made his F1 debut in F1 in 2005, with Red Bull. Since then, his career has been far from smooth and he’s changed teams a number of times. He joined HRT Cosworth at the start of this year and has done everything he could to help the team grow and to extract the maximum from the car.

Season review:

Released by Force India at the end of 2010 despite a valid contract for the new season, Vitantonio Liuzzi ended up racing for HRT.

The debuts were difficult as the Italian had to sit out the first day of practice in Australia while the mechanics were busy building his car. In such circumstances, he couldn’t qualify within the 107% and was not allowed to start the opening Grand Prix of the season.

His campaign started properly in Malaysia but he retired from the race. In China, he took the chequered flag in 22nd position. A gearbox problem forced him to retire in Spain but he scored good results in the following races: a 16th place finish in Monaco and a 13th place in Canada.

Unfortunately, Liuzzi’s season was tarnished by a mistake in Italy. He went off track at the start of the Italian Grand Prix and span, collecting Nico Rosberg and Vitaly Petrov on the way and taking them both out of the race.

He then had to sit out the inaugural Indian Grand Prix as the team was keen to have Narain Karthikeyan behind the wheel for his home race.

Conclusion:

Finishing ahead of the Virgin drivers was the best Liuzzi could hope for in 2011. He did so, so can be pretty satisfied with his effort at the wheel of the F111. His 13th place in Canada remains the best ever result of HRT in Formula One.

Performance-wise, the Italian easily beat his teammate Narain Karthikeyan but was less convincing against Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian rookie finished ahead of him four times out of five and they were matched in qualifying.

At the moment, Liuzzi’s presence at the start of next season is not yet guaranteed. He is believed to have a contract with HRT but has not been confirmed yet.

Highs :
13th place in Canada
Helped the team to improve

Lows :
Collision at the start of the Italian Grand Prix
Beaten by Ricciardo

Nextgen-Auto.com marks:

Olivier Ferret : 9/20

D.Thys : 11/20

Sandrine Bouchard : 11/20

Jean-Michel Setbon : 10/20

Average mark on the forum Nextgen-Auto.com : 10/20

Global mark : 51/100