Scott Speed
Scott Andrew Speed is a race car driver born on 24 January 1983 in Manteca, California, USA. Formerly a driver for the Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 team, he made his Formula One race debut at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix. He is scheduled to make his debut in American stock car racing in the ARCA RE/MAX Series on 5th October 2007.
Early years
Speed's career started at the age of 10 in karting, his stint there lasting from 1993 until 2001, winning the SKUSA Super Pro Title for JM Racing driving a Tony Kart Swedetech Honda in 2000. He also won the 2002 Rock Island GP in 125cc Shifter Karts. He moved up to Formula series in 2001, competing in US Formula Russell and becoming champion. He drove in both the US Barber Formula Dodge and US Star Mazda Series followed in 2002, although he failed to win either title, and in 2003 the American drove for the ADR team in British Formula Three after winning the Red Bull Driver Search programme. During that year he fell ill with ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease, and was forced to return to the United States for treatment.[1]
2004 saw two championship titles for Speed, though, with him first winning in Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup and later German Formula Renault. This was despite his worsening colitis, for which Speed faced major surgery until experimental treatment finally proved effective in controlling the condition.[1] His performances resulted in a drive in the inaugural season of GP2 Series for 2005, as number two for the iSport team to Can Artam. Speed was later promoted to first driver for the team, and ended the season third place in the driver championship standings behind Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen.
At the end of 2005, Speed drove the first three races of the new A1 Grand Prix series for A1 Team USA, achieving a best result of fourth in the Feature Race of the 2005-06 A1 Grand Prix of Nations, Portugal, held at the Autódromo do Estoril.
Formula One
2005
In 2005 at the Canadian Grand Prix, Speed took part as a test driver for Red Bull Racing; becoming the first American driver to participate in a Formula One event since Michael Andretti's 1993 stint. He was also the test driver for the United States Grand Prix.
Following its purchase of Minardi, Red Bull Racing announced the creation of Scuderia Toro Rosso with Speed and Vitantonio Liuzzi as its drivers in 2006 season.
2006
In his debut race at the Bahrain Grand Prix, he finished 13th. A week later at the Malaysian Grand Prix he retired after 41 laps due to a clutch malfunction.
After the Australian Grand Prix it looked as if he had scored his and Toro Rosso's first point. Later on however, he had 25 seconds added to his race time dropping him to 9th place for overtaking under yellow flags. He was also fined $5000 for using abusive language during a post-race hearing towards David Coulthard.
He finished the San Marino Grand Prix in 15th place. A week later and after a decent run at the European Grand Prix he finished 11th. He retired from the Spanish Grand Prix with an engine failure. And in his first Monaco Grand Prix he finished 13th.
He retired from the British Grand Prix on the opening lap with accident damage after coming together with Ralf Schumacher. Speed bounced back and ran rather well at the Canadian Grand Prix finishing 10th.
At the United States Grand Prix he qualified a career best 13th only to be taken out in a first-lap collision. In Turn 2, Juan Pablo Montoya nudged his teammate Kimi Räikkönen into a spin. Montoya then clouted Jenson Button whose front right tyre got caught by BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld who was launched into a spectacular triple barrel roll. Speed was caught up in the resulting melee. None of the drivers were injured. Speed could consider himself unlucky, as the traditional high rate of attrition that the US Grand Prix usually sees allowed his teammate Liuzzi to finish 8th, and score the team's first World Championship point.
At the French Grand Prix he finished 10th, matching David Coulthard's pace throughout. It was a brave effort considering Speed was suffering from back pains and breathing problems, stemming from a Friday Practice accident. After crashing during the first knock-out session in Qualifying for the German Grand Prix, Speed battled his way up to 12th in the race. At the Hungarian Grand Prix he finished 11th and 4 laps behind the leader, but it was in very wet and changeable conditions.
At the Turkish Grand Prix, Speed started in 18th, but could only battle to 13th, from 15 classified runners. At the next round, the Italian Grand Prix, Speed qualified a respectable 15th in Scuderia Toro Rosso's home race, but a disappointing race saw him make up just two places and finish 13th.
.PNG)
At the Chinese Grand Prix, Speed qualified a very good 11th place in wet conditions, but an equally wet race saw him slip back to 14th by the end. The next round was the Japanese Grand Prix, which Speed, after a disappointing qualifying, which saw him start the race in 19th. Suffering a power steering failure with five laps remaining, Scott was unable to finish. However, as he had completed over 90% of the race distance, he was still classified.
Finally, at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, Speed had another good race, finishing a good 11th, with 17 cars classified, too, having started down in 17th.
After much speculation, Scuderia Toro Rosso confirmed on 24 February 2007 that Speed had signed to continue driving for the team in 2007.[2] He will once again team up with Vitantonio Liuzzi.
2007
Speed's 2007 season was largely disappointing, punctuated with poor reliability and several crashes. After the 2007 European Grand Prix, in which both drivers spun off in the early wet conditions, it was reported that he was involved in a physical altercation with Team Principal Franz Tost,[3] although Tost has since denied this.[4] Speed has also gone on the verbal offensive against the team, claiming that they want to get rid of both him and Liuzzi.[5] Speed's future with Toro Rosso remained very much in doubt for the rest of that season.[3] Speed says that no amount of money would get him to work with his current team bosses in the future.[6]
On 31st July 2007 Speed was released from his contract at Scuderia Toro Rosso and replaced by BMW Sauber test driver Sebastian Vettel, who is under contract to Red Bull's driver development programme.[7] Vettel will also race for Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2008. Nevertheless, Speed's relationship with Red Bull as a whole remains good, and he is hopeful of securing a Red Bull-backed drive in the USA for 2008.[8]
Stock cars
On 20th September 2007 it was announced that Speed will race the No. 21 Red Bull sponsored Toyota in the ARCA RE/MAX Series at the Talladega Superspeedway on October 5th. He will be driving for Eddie Sharp Racing. This will mark Speed's debut in stock cars, possibly leading to a NASCAR Sprint Cup debut in 2008[9].
GP2 Series Record
| Season | Team Name | No. | Races | Poles | Wins | Points | Final Placing |
| 2005 | iSport International | 01 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 67.5 | 3rd |
Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | WDC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Red Bull Racing | Red Bull RB1 | Cosworth TJ2005 3.0 V10 | AUS |
MAL |
BHR |
SMR |
ESP |
MON |
EUR |
CAN TD |
USA TD |
FRA |
GBR |
GER |
HUN |
TUR |
ITA |
BEL |
BRA |
JPN |
CHN |
- | - |
| 2006 | Scuderia Toro Rosso | Toro Rosso STR1 | Cosworth TJ2006 3.0 V10 14 Series |
BHR 13 |
MAL Ret |
AUS 9 |
SMR 15 |
EUR 11 |
ESP Ret |
MON 13 |
GBR Ret |
CAN 10 |
USA Ret |
FRA 10 |
GER 12 |
HUN 11 |
TUR 13 |
ITA 13 |
CHN 14 |
JPN Ret |
BRA 11 |
20th | 0 | |
| 2007 | Scuderia Toro Rosso | Toro Rosso STR2 | Ferrari 056 2.4 V8 | AUS Ret |
MAL 14 |
BHR Ret |
ESP Ret |
MON 9 |
CAN Ret |
USA 13 |
FRA Ret |
GBR Ret |
EUR Ret |
HUN |
TUR |
ITA |
BEL |
JPN |
CHN |
BRA |
19th* | 0* |
* Season in progress
Personal Information
Speed currently resides in Fuschl am See, Austria, where he lives with his girlfriend Valentina Neuhauser. His brother Alex currently races karts in America.
References
- ^ a b Scott Speed www.formula1.com Retrieved 1 July 2007
- ^ "Oh yes, and Toro Rosso confirms Speed". grandprix.com. 2007-02-25. Retrieved 2007-02-25.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b "Scuffle could spell end to Speed's career". flagworld.auto123.com. 2007-07-23. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Franz Tost denies assaulting STR's Speed". duemotori.com. 2007-07-24. Retrieved 2007-07-24.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Speed says Toro Rosso want rid of him and Liuzzi". uk.reuters.com. 2007-07-23. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/61125
- ^ "Toro Rosso axe Speed for Vettel". BBC Sport. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Straw, Edd (2007). "STR refugees in hunt for jobs". Autosport. 189 (7): p.8.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ "September 20, 2007 Press release". scottspeed.com. 2007-09-20. Retrieved 2007-09-22.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
External links
