28.07.2004 Ferrari are reportedly lining up the runway F3000 Championship leader, Vitantonio Liuzzi, as a long term replacement for Michael Schumacher
The Ferrari Formula One team are reportedly lining up runway F3000 Championship leader Vitantonio Liuzzi as a long term replacement for Michael Schumacher.
Liuzzi has dominated this year's International F3000 series, winning six of the seven races held so far, and in the process has opened up a 10 point advantage over fellow Italian Enrico Tocaccelo, with just three races now remaining.
23-year-old Tonio
began his racing career in Italian karting in 1991, enjoying ten year's of
success in the formula before becoming the clear winner of the
prestigious 2001 FIA/CIK Karting World Championship series.
The next season saw him step up to German F3, and a series of impressive
performances during the year, gave him the opportunity to get behind the wheel
of an F3000 car for Coloni Motorsport, and conduct an F1 test with the Williams-BMW team.
The Coloni
appearance
led him to an F3000 seat with the Italian team last year, and his resulting fourth place
finish in the championship saw him as the best placed rookie.
This year brought a switch to Arden International, the reigning F3000 Champions.
"We looked long and hard before we chose our drivers," said Arden boss Christian
Horner on announcing his new driver earlier this year. "We expect Vitantonio to
perform strongly as our lead driver.”
With six wins to his credit thus far this season, a feat previously only beaten by Juan-Pablo
Montoya and Nick Heidfeld in the history of the F1 feeder series, the title now
his for the taking.
With his strong Red
Bull connections, recent talk has linked him for next year with vacant F1 seats
at Sauber and Jaguar.
But now Ferrari have moved into the frame, reportedly having been following his every move,
with both team boss Jean Todt, and lead driver Michael Schumacher, keeping a close eye on
proceedings.
The German World Champion is rumoured to have been impressed by Liuzzi when the
youngster beat him at the Kerpen karting event three years ago.
Todt is apparently keen to bring him on board as a test driver for the Scuderia next year. Another option is to use their close relationship with the Ferrari-powered Sauber team to slide him into the seat shortly to be vacated by the Renault-bound Giancarlo Fisichella.
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