Giancarlo Fisichella

Name: Giancarlo Fisichella
Born: January 14, 1973 in Rome, Italy
Team: Force India
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 145 lbs.
Hobbies: Soccer, tennis, fishing, billiards.

Previous F1 Teams:
    * 1996 Minardi
    * 1997 Prost
    * 1998 - 2001 Benetton
    * 2002 - 2003 Jordan
    * 2004 Sauber
    * 2005 - 2007 Renault
    * 2008 Force India

Victories: 3

Background:
Giancarlo began go-kart racing at 11 and finished second in the European karting championship in 1989 and 1991. He finished second in the world karting championship in 1990. He also finished second in the Italian Formula 3 in 1993, his second season in the car racing series. He won that F3 title in 1994. In 1995 he set out for two seasons of touring car racing with Mercedes and also test drove for the Minardi Formula 1 team. But the following year, he dropped touring cars and graduated to F1 racing with Minardi.

His Career Thus Far:
Giancarlo raced in eight Grand Prixs for Minardi in 1996. He joined Jordan the following season before moving to Benetton in 1998. It looked like the Roman had made all the right moves, starting small and working his way up, joining Benetton only two seasons after it won both the drivers' and constructors' titles. In fact, Benetton was about to enter one of its most difficult periods. Giancarlo left the team at its lowest point, after the 2001 season, but just as it began to succeed again under its new name, Renault.

A Driver's Driver:
Giancarlo returned to Jordan for two seasons. During the second of those, in 2003, he scored his first victory, at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Although it was done after bad weather cut the race short and he happened to be leading at the time, his skills were not in doubt. Only months before that Giancarlo had been voted the best driver of 2002 by his fellow drivers. After a year at Sauber, the Italian finally made it in 2005 to the top team, Renault, that seemed to be the only factor missing from his career. Unfortunately, although he won a couple of races at Renault, he proved never to be up to his team mate Alonso, and then found himself with an uncompetitive car in 2007. He left the team to join the weak Force India team in 2008.

The Question Mark:
In Giancarlo's first race at Renault, the Australian Grand Prix, he took both pole position and victory. But his teammate, Fernando Alonso, went on to win seven races and the drivers' title that year while Giancarlo took no more victories. In 2006 Alonso again won seven races and the title, while Giancarlo again won only one race. In 2007 with his rookie teammate Heikki Kovalainen, Giancarlo started the season as well as possible, but eventually Heikki caught up and proved to be his equal. In 2008, Giancarlo joined the Force India team, where victory was out of the question and his team mate, was the talented but unproven Adrian Sutil. Giancarlo was hired for his experience, certainly, but he will have to prove himself all over again.