Drivers

Antonio Pizzonia

Pizzonia started racing when he was 10 and after winning the local championships he began to commute to Sao Paulo at weekends for races in the more competitive Sao Paulo championships and by the time he was 15 he had won the Brazilian national title. This led to the decision to go to the United States to compete in the Barber Dodge series and then in 1997 he moved to Britain to race in Formula Vauxhall Junior. He was the champion in 1998 and moved up to Formula Renault and won the title in 1999. This led to a test with the Williams F1 team. He raced in Formula 3 the following year and won the title at his first attempt and was then given a test by the Benetton team. In 2001 he signed a long-term deal with Williams and so became a member of the Petrobras Junior Team in Formula 3000 and although the cars were not very competitive he showed his pace on occasion, while also impressive Williams with his speed during his F1 tests. At the end of 2002 Jaguar Racing asked Williams to release him from its contract and Williams agreed. Pizzonia joined Mark Webber at Jaguar Racing in 2003 but never really settled in the team and was dumped after the British Grand Prix in July.He fought back to become the Williams test driver in 2004 and raced for the team on several occasions when Ralf Schumacher was injured. At the start of 2005 however Pizzonia's hopes of a drive with Williams were dashed when the team chose Nick Heidfeld. He satyed on as test driver for the team in 2005 but then dropped out of F1.