Vitantonio Liuzzi might be one of the most underrated drivers ever to have raced in F1, having achieved great success in his karting career and in junior formulas.
The Italian graduated to F1 in 2005 after Red Bull took over Jaguar and was drafted in to replace Christian Klien after three races, following an earlier agreement between Liuzzi and team management.
Liuzzi would compete at the San Marino Grand Prix where he qualified just 0.172s off Red Bull team leader David Coulthard, and ran ahead of him for most of the race.
He would go on to become the only man to overtake Michael Schumacher on his first racing lap, eventually scoring a point by finishing in eighth place.
It wasn’t the first time Liuzzi had impressed in front of the seven-time world champion, after beating him in a world championship karting race in 2001. Discussing the karting race on the Inside F1 podcast, Liuzzi recalled how he became one of the most popular karting drivers.
Vitantonio Liuzzi once beat Michael Schumacher in a karting race
Schumacher wanted to add the World Karting Championship to his win tally in 2001 and decided to enter the finale at his home town in Kerpen, which featured Liuzzi along with other familiar faces including Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
The prospect of Schumacher going up against rookies, who had won four F1 world championships at the time, seems bizarre but he meticulously prepared for the race. He retired with a mechanical issue after driving from P18 to P4 in the first race, before being beaten by Liuzzi in the second race.
The Italian says the triumph earned him a lot of respect from Schumacher, who he would later overtake on his F1 debut just five years later.
“When I was fighting for my world title against my competitors and knowing that Michael Schumacher, at that time four-time world champion, was coming into my race it changed my perspective. Media-wise, all the media were only focused on him,” said Liuzzi.
“We thought that it might not be good for us, but I will always be thankful to Schumacher that he came to take part in the last race because I became the most famous karting driver who won a world title ever because I beat Schumacher. We became good friends and he had a lot of respect for karting drivers.”
Vitantonio Liuzzi only raced four times with Red Bull and 35 times with Toro Rosso
Liuzzi impressed Helmut Marko during his time as a test driver for Red Bull, with the Austrian hailing him similarly to Max Verstappen. After his debut at San Marino, Red Bull kept Liuzzi on board for another three races before reverting to Klien for the remainder of the season.
Liuzzi retired from two of the four races while he finished in P9 on his final race, before he switched to Toro Rosso for the 2006 season.
| Year | Position In Drivers Championship | Points |
| 2005 | 24th | 1 |
| 2006 | 19th | 1 |
| 2007 | 18th | 3 |
| 2009 | 22nd | 0 |
| 2010 | 15th | 21 |
| 2011 | 23rd | 0 |
His best finish would be P6 at the Chinese Grand Prix in 2007, before being dropped by Red Bull entirely in favour of upcoming driver Sebastian Vettel.
Liuzzi would later find refuge at Force India in 2009, where he raced with them for two years before a final season at the Hispania Racing Team in 2011.
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