5/3/1975
Record updated
Luciano Burti (born in Sao Paolo, March 5, 1975) is a Brazilian racing driver who briefly raced in Formula One. His early career saw him graduate through the usual channels and he found himself in British Formula 3 driving for the crack Stewart Racing team. In his second season of F3 in 1999 he finished runner-up to Marc Hynes, but it was third placed Jenson Button who would go on to achieve stardom in F1. Burti impressed when testing the Stewart grand prix car that season and became Jaguar's tester for 2000, mainly down to the lobbying of Jackie Stewart, the outgoing team-boss. A surprise grand prix debut came on July 16, 2000, at the Austrian Grand Prix, as a replacement for the injured Eddie Irvine. Having tested consistently well for Jaguar in the 2000 Formula One season and with a race start already under his belt, he was promoted to the race team alongside Irvine in 2001, replacing Johnny Herbert. However, after just four races, he fell out of favour and was replaced by ex-Arrows driver Pedro de la Rosa. Luckily he found a seat at Prost, where the underperforming Gaston Mazzacane had been sacked. Burti raced competently for Prost and recorded his highest finish - eighth place - at the Canadian Grand Prix. There was also the odd time when he would qualify ahead of team-mate Alesi. However, a horror crash at the Belgian Grand Prix later on in the year saw him having to sit out the rest of the season and his seat was taken by Czech rookie Tomas Enge. He subsequently signed to test for the Ferrari team, but that came to an end with the expiry of his contact in 2004. Over the course of his Formula One career, he scored no championship points, and the odds of him making a Grand Prix comeback are not promising. He has since returned to racing in Brazil.