F1 Racing October 2004

Ferrari sign ‘04’s quickest F3000 talent

[Note: The magazine reported this long before Tonio became a Red Bull Racing driver. Therefore although I’m including it on this website (after all it is about Tonio) you can believe that the deal wasn’t done after all.]

The message was unmistakeable and Ferrari didn’t hesitate – they’ve nabbed Vitantonio Liuzzi, the driver who’s as dominant in F3000 in 2004 as Michael Schumacher is in F1. He could be racing for them in 2007.

Formula 3000 star of the moment Vitantonio Liuzzi has signed a long-term Ferrari contract under which, F1 Racing believes, he would race for the team in 2008.

Liuzzi, who has dominated this year’s F3000 championship, driving for the Arden team, has impressed several senior team principals this season. But Jean Todt has moved fastest to sign the sharpest talent to emerge from F3000 since Fernando Alonso.

Liuzzi’s deal has been framed to allow him time to learn the F1 ropes. It offers him a year testing in 2005, before stepping up to a race drive, perhaps with Sauber, in 2006. Thanks to Ferrari’s close links with Sauber (Ferrari supply their engines and gearboxes, and Jean Todt’s son Nicolas managers Felipe Massa) it is likely that Liuzzi will become Sauber’s third driver next year, combining his Friday driving role at race weekends with further testing for Sauber and possibly Ferrari.

Liuzzi’s manager, ex-Lotus boss Peter Collins, hopes this will save Vitantonio from stumbling into the trap if inexperience that has this year caught out the less well-advised Giorgio Pantano and Christian Klien, who jumped straight into F1 from lesser series, with predictably unremarkable results.

Liuzzi’s stunning F3000 season, in which he won six of the first seven races, attracted attention from Frank Williams, B.A.R’s David Richard and Jaguar’s Tony Purnell, as well as Ferrari’s Jean Todt. Indeed, each held talks with Collins with a view to signing Liuzzi to a testing role for 2005. Todt moved the fastest, however.

As long as Liuzzi, an ex-world karting champion, meets the performance clauses built into his contract, he will race for Sauber (most likely beside Massa) in 2006. If all goes well, he will then move to Ferrari in 2007 or 2008. Should Michael Schumacher, whose current Ferrari contract expires at the end of 2006, still be racing, Tonio could find himself driving alongside the (possibly by then) nine-times world champion in 2007. Incidentally, Pescara-born Liuzzi would be the first Italian to race for Ferrari since Ivan Capelli’s miserable sojourn with the Scuderia in 1992.

Should Liuzzi’s deal proceed as planned, Sauber will, of course, need a race driver to replace Renault-bound Giancarlo Fisichella for 2005. B.A.R’s Anthony Davidson, who again proved his class by going fastest in first practice for the Belgian GP, on full tanks, relegating the Ferraris to second and third spots, remains top of Peter Sauber’s list.

Sauber also continues to make positive noises about Mercedes-Benz DTM racer Gary Paffett, who was due to test for he team pre-Monza. If he fails to land Davidson (who might well drive for Ford Grand Prix or, possibly, B.A.R next year), Sauber might well hire Paffett. However, it’s important that he continue to show interest in other drivers, to increase his leverage with Davidson’s hard-bargaining managers, David and Steve Robertson and Didier Stoessel.

All photos and article from F1 Racing Magazine. All credit goes to them.