Hoping for a good debate on this one because I change my mind about him about every other week.
Antonio has a decent background in other formula and was Formula 3000 champion(pre-GP2) in 2004 - only his second season in that formula.
Graduated in to F1 the following year and was originally going to get the second car at Red Bull alongside DC but in the end Red Bull decided to give him and Christian Klein a share option of the car. Antonio only go 4 races and Klein got the rest of the season. To be fair to Liuzzi he was coming into F1 for the first time with little testing and Klein had already done a full season with the same team(then the Jags of course). Records show he scored a point on his debut at San Marino after the BARs got the cut for their 'extra fuel tank' but 2 retirments and 9th there after wasn't enough to get him the seat.
Red Bull can't have been 2 unimpressed though because the following year he was given a seat at Toro Rosso their junior team alongside american clown Scott Speed. Antonio scored Toro Rosso only point that season with an 8th place in the U.S. He consistantly beat Speed but only acheived 4 top ten finishes all season. Again to be fair to him the Toro Rosso was not a good car and had an underpowered V8 engine which left them struggling. Liuzzi's contract was renewed for 2007 but he was under increasing pressure due to a certain bloke named Sebastian Vettel waiting in the wings and due to American sponsorship the idea of KART champion Sebastian Bourdais being signed. Liuzzi didn't respond well and had an awful start to 2007. Strangely enough it was the arrival of Vettel that spurred Liuzzi into some form and he was unlucky to be given a time penalty in Japan that slipped him back to 9th denying him some points. The very next race in China he out qualified his soon to be very famous team-mate and took 11th on the grid. He also had a fantastic race coming hime 6th and pretty much keeping pace with the Honda of Jenson Button all the way. Unfourtunatly for him Vettel finshed 4th so it looked less impressive.
Dropped by Toro Rosso he became Force India's test driver in 2008 and finally got his chance at a race seat part way through 2009 when Fisichella decided to go to Ferrari. He didn't score any points but he pretty much kept pace with Sutil which secured him his seat for 2010. You could say he was unlucky in 2010 - seem to have a habit of getting involved in first lap incidents. When he did manage to avoid them though he used to be in the top 10 and had a brilliant drive in the wet in Korea where he was 6th and pretty much kept pace with the front runners.
Dropped again by Force India he picked up the drive with HRT where he's been doing whats been expected of him I guess.
If you look at his results compared to Sutil and then look at Di Resta's results compared to Sutil then Antonio actually comes out on top so was Liuzzi dropped unfairly? If you look at the results he also did a much better job than Bourdais at Toro Rosso who replaced him there. Has Liuzzi been the victim of PR? With a better management team behind him would he have kept those drives and proven himself? Is there any point him being at HRT? Martin Brundle suggested he was doing his career more harm than good.
Any thoughts?
Antonio has a decent background in other formula and was Formula 3000 champion(pre-GP2) in 2004 - only his second season in that formula.
Graduated in to F1 the following year and was originally going to get the second car at Red Bull alongside DC but in the end Red Bull decided to give him and Christian Klein a share option of the car. Antonio only go 4 races and Klein got the rest of the season. To be fair to Liuzzi he was coming into F1 for the first time with little testing and Klein had already done a full season with the same team(then the Jags of course). Records show he scored a point on his debut at San Marino after the BARs got the cut for their 'extra fuel tank' but 2 retirments and 9th there after wasn't enough to get him the seat.
Red Bull can't have been 2 unimpressed though because the following year he was given a seat at Toro Rosso their junior team alongside american clown Scott Speed. Antonio scored Toro Rosso only point that season with an 8th place in the U.S. He consistantly beat Speed but only acheived 4 top ten finishes all season. Again to be fair to him the Toro Rosso was not a good car and had an underpowered V8 engine which left them struggling. Liuzzi's contract was renewed for 2007 but he was under increasing pressure due to a certain bloke named Sebastian Vettel waiting in the wings and due to American sponsorship the idea of KART champion Sebastian Bourdais being signed. Liuzzi didn't respond well and had an awful start to 2007. Strangely enough it was the arrival of Vettel that spurred Liuzzi into some form and he was unlucky to be given a time penalty in Japan that slipped him back to 9th denying him some points. The very next race in China he out qualified his soon to be very famous team-mate and took 11th on the grid. He also had a fantastic race coming hime 6th and pretty much keeping pace with the Honda of Jenson Button all the way. Unfourtunatly for him Vettel finshed 4th so it looked less impressive.
Dropped by Toro Rosso he became Force India's test driver in 2008 and finally got his chance at a race seat part way through 2009 when Fisichella decided to go to Ferrari. He didn't score any points but he pretty much kept pace with Sutil which secured him his seat for 2010. You could say he was unlucky in 2010 - seem to have a habit of getting involved in first lap incidents. When he did manage to avoid them though he used to be in the top 10 and had a brilliant drive in the wet in Korea where he was 6th and pretty much kept pace with the front runners.
Dropped again by Force India he picked up the drive with HRT where he's been doing whats been expected of him I guess.
If you look at his results compared to Sutil and then look at Di Resta's results compared to Sutil then Antonio actually comes out on top so was Liuzzi dropped unfairly? If you look at the results he also did a much better job than Bourdais at Toro Rosso who replaced him there. Has Liuzzi been the victim of PR? With a better management team behind him would he have kept those drives and proven himself? Is there any point him being at HRT? Martin Brundle suggested he was doing his career more harm than good.
Any thoughts?
I was under that impression too at first, but it's actually 
