Luciano
Burti

Luciano Burti was born in São Paulo on 5 March 1975. He raced in British Formula 3 for Stewart Racing and finished runner-up to Marc Hynes in 1999, his second season in Formula 3. That year he tested a Stewart Formula One car, and he became Jaguar's test driver for 2000.

He made his Formula One debut at the 2000 Austrian Grand Prix, stepping in at short notice for Eddie Irvine. In 2001 he was promoted to Jaguar's race team alongside Irvine, but lost his seat to Pedro de la Rosa after four races. He found a drive at Prost straight away, taking over from Gastón Mazzacane. He finished eighth at the Canadian Grand Prix, the best result of his Formula One career. In Germany he ran into the slowing Ferrari of Michael Schumacher after the start and his car flipped over the Arrows of Enrique Bernoldi, with all three drivers unhurt. At the Belgian Grand Prix he had a heavy crash at Blanchimont after touching Irvine, and he missed the rest of the season. His seat went to Tomáš Enge. In total he made 15 starts without scoring a championship point.

Burti then worked as a Ferrari test driver until 2004. He returned to Brazil, raced in Stock Car Brasil and became a commentator for TV Globo.

Source: Wikipedia, “Luciano Burti”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.