Luciano Burti profile

[Gerard]

Sunday, Luciano Burti will make his debut as a Grand Prix driver. Here's his profile:


picture by fvaux.com

Name: Luciano Pucci Burti
Date of Birth: March 5th, 1975
Place of Birth: São Paulo, Brazil
Height : 1.75 m
Weight: 68 kg
Marital Status: Single
Place of Residence: São Paulo, Brazil/ Cambridge, England
Hobby/Sports: Karting and jogging
Superstition: To enter always through the right side of the car
Idol: Ayrton Senna
Favorite Tracks: Macau and Spa-Francorchamps

Luciano Burti is a talented young driver, who has accumulated titles and excellent results throughout his career, from the early days in Kart to his debut in international motor racing in 1996.
Driving for the Martin Donnelly Racing Team in the English Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship he obtained four race victories and a third place.
At the end of the same year he won the Formula Vauxhall Winter Series Championship, this time racing for the Paul Stewart Racing Team.
This guaranteed a seat, in the same team, to race in the English Formula Vauxhall Championship of 1997.

Luciano Burti lead this Championship from the second race to the end of the series.
With a remarkable and brilliant performance Luciano won the Championship, an unprecedented title for Brazil.

His outstanding performance guaranteed him a place in Jackie Stewart’s team for the 1998 English Formula 3 Championship, the next step towards Formula 1.
He ended his first season in third place, winning two races.

Still in 1998 Burti saw a dream come true, with the opportunity of driving a Formula 1 car for the first time.
Initially invited by Jackie Stewart for a test in the middle of the year with Rubens Barrichello’s car, Luciano also performed several other tests until the end of 1998.
On December 23rd, Stewart’s 1999 F-1 version debuted through the hands of Luciano Burti, at Silverstone

In 1999 Luciano participated in the English Formula 3 Championship, again racing for Paul Stewart’s Racing Team.
The journalists considered him one of the favorites to win that year’s title.
Burti won five races battling for the Championship head to head with Marc Hynes until the last race.

However, in the second to the last round, in Silverstone, Burti was disqualified, after finishing third in the race, won by Jenson Button.

In the final race Burti took the pole position, set the fastest lap and won the race. But that was not enough to win the title. Hynes was Champion, with 213 points, against Burti’s 209.

Losing the Championship in a controversial decision did not harm Burti. He had shown enough talent to attract the attention of the Jaguar Racing Team and was invited to be the official test driver for 2000.


1991: First Kart race.
1992: 3rd in Pakalolo Kart Championship and 5th in São Paulo Kart Championship.
1993: 3rd in Campinas Kart Championship and 7th São Paulo Kart Championship.
1994: 4th in the São Paulo Kart Championship and South American Kart Champion.
Campeonato Aberto de Kart Champion.
Pakalolo Kart Championship.
5th in the Pan-American Kart Championship.
8th in the World Karting Championship.
1995: São Paulo Kart Champion and winner of the Brazil 24 hours Kart Race.
New Zealand Formula Ford Runner-up.
1996: 3rd in Formula Vauxhall Junior with four wins.
Formula Vauxhall Winterseries Champion.
1997: British Formula Vauxhall Champion.
1998: 3rd in the British Formula 3 Championship with two wins.
Begins regular testing of Stewart-Ford Grand Prix car, shaking down the 1999 car.
1999: runner-up in British Formula 3 Championship with five wins.
Again testing for Stewart-Ford.
2000: Formula 1 test driver for Jaguar Racing.
First Formula One drive at the Austrian GP.

Luciano Burti website at http://www.lucianoburti.com

[Sharky]

Very good profile.

Let's hope he does well in his debut.

[Mr.S]

Looks good, hope he does well. Who knows maybe Johnny's seat next year. I have no doubt in his ability with the R1, but can he handle a track which he hasn't seen before? Or am I wrong in assuming he hasn't been here?

[Valve Bounce]

Actually, you guys will know in a couple of hours how well this guy will go during quals. I won't be able to watch it or even folow it on the net - I will be watching the Wallabies vs All Blacks game. Heck, I wil just log on to the net afterwards to see who qualified where.

[Sharky]

21. Well....not so bad if you take into account that he couldn't do a lot of laps in the morning practice sesion because of a clutch problem. Let's wait and see how he does in the race.

[wodonnell]

21st position on the grid is the same as Button got in his first race.

Its a shame the car is no good though as it would have been interesting to see a true comparison.

In theory, Luciano is faster than Jenson (having beaten him in F3 last year). Given that they are both pretty much at the back of the grid there should be some good racing between the 2 of them.

Just hope he lasts longer than the lap and a bit that Tomas Scheckter managed in his F3000 debut today.

[Gerard]

Stand-in for Eddie Irvine, Luciano Burti ended the qualifying session on the back row, but in spite of such he got praise from the team's technical director.

Gary Anderson said the following on Burti's performance: 'For someone thrown in the deep end Luciano did a very good job considering we didn't give him the best opportunity with his gearbox problems. He has never seen the circuit, he has had just 45 minutes to prepare himself and was using a set-up he was unfamiliar with and he was still within six-tenths of Johnny.'

Burti himself admitted that in spite of this weekend's opportunity, he has little chance of securing a drive with Jaguar for 2001 and explained why by saying: 'I know they are trying to find a driver with more experience. I have a great chance here to show I can be a good option for the team but it's going to be very very difficult for me.'