Giorgio Pantano

4/2/1979

Record updated

Giorgio Pantano
Italian racing driver who drove for the Jordan Formula One team for much of the 2004 season before being replaced by Timo Glock, and who raced in the 2005 GP2 Series for the SuperNova team. Pantano is the holder of one of the best records ever in karting, where he started at age nine. In his first year in Cadet karting he achieved the Italian and European titles. In 1994 he won the Italian and World titles in Junior karting and in 1995 and 1996 won the European Formula A. In 1996 he was signed by AMG Mercedes Benz, from where he went through a difficult patch to enter Formula One racing. He entered the winter series of Palmer Audi in 1999 and tested for Astromega Formula 3000 before signing for the KMS team that would take him to race in F3 in his first year of single-seater racing. He won his first race and went on to win the title. His first taste of Formula One came in 2000, when he was tested by Benetton. However, he joined Astromega in Formula 3000 in 2001 and won at Monza. That same year he tested for McLaren. In 2002 he tested for Williams and Minardi, but was unable to break into Formula One, so he signed for the Durango team and won two races in the International Formula 3000 series in 2003, which earned him third place in the championship. He nearly spent 2003 in Champ Car, but the BC Motorsports team he believed he had a contract with proved to be fake. He signed for Jordan Formula One team in early 2004, although after an unsuccessful season left the support. In 2005 he racedin the inaugural GP2 Series for the SuperNova team, alongside Adam Carroll of Northern Ireland, who defied expectations by outpacing Pantano. He is also drove in the Indy Racing League for Ganassi Racing in the road-course races in the 2005 season and is a candidate for a full-time ride in 2006, although he has also been linked to Conquest in ChampCar. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giorgio_Pantano"

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