Vitantonio Liuzzi claims he was already talking to other teams before it was revealed he was to be ousted from the
Scuderia Toro Rosso team in 2008, the Italian admitting he has high hopes of staying in
Formula 1.
With
Scott Speed already having been shown the door following the arrival of
Sebastian Vettel, it was long expected that Liuzzi would also follow, the inevitable eventually occurring last week when Champ Car World Series Champion
Sebastien Bourdais was confirmed for next year.
It leaves Liuzzi, who came to Formula 1 in 2005 on a wave of publicity as
Red Bull's test driver having become the 2004 Formula 3000 Champion, without a drive for 2008.
Nonetheless, the Italian denies the decision to drop him came as a surprise, Liuzzi claiming that he knew what was to come when Toro Rosso invited Bourdais to test over the winter. Furthermore, when sister team Red Bull confirmed they would be retaining
Mark Webber and
David Coulthard, Liuzzi claims that was the prompt he needed to actively start looking elsewhere.
”I started to look around 2 months ago, since I decided not to return to Toro Rosso,” he told
Italiaracing.net. “Many contradictory episodes happened in 2007, so I wanted to move on. I'm talking with a couple of high-level teams, but I'm not mentioning their name. I'm also looking to the USA, more at ChampCar than IndyCar, but my main goal is to stay in Formula 1; I feel like I've a lot yet to prove.”
”I'm working to be back racing in 2008, but a chance as a test driver won't be ruled out. It depends from the team; I'm talking with several major squads, in which a test role could be very pleasant. We'll see.”
Blaming dismal reliability of his Toro Rosso for his failure to improve upon the single point he achieved in the United State Grand Prix in 2006, Liuzzi went on to reveal that his high-profile successor Bourdais didn't impress him during testing.
