Brazil's latest sensation, 22-year-old Antonio Pizzonia kicked off his racing career like so many other F1 drivers by competing in the kart championship. Starting in regional competition in Sao Paulo at just 11 years of age, Pizzonia went on to claim four championships before moving up to the International scene at the age of 16.

Once there he secured a total of 76 podiums from 112 races, 48 of them on the top step of the rostrum and 21 times on the second step. In 1997 and 1998, Antonio secured 12 wins in the Formula Vauxhall Junior British Championship, amassing a massive 352 points over the course of the two seasons and taking the title in 98, becoming the first non British racer to do so and the youngest!

Impressively, Antonio won 15 races during his 1999 season in the Formula Renault European Championship, beating Formula One champion, Alain Prost's long standing record of 12 victories. From here he went on to the British Formula Three Championship in 2000, to take three victories, five second places and one third position.

F3000 was next on the agenda for 2002 and here he secured one win and sixth place in the championship. He continued on the same path in 2002, adding testing duties for the BMW WillaimsF1 team to his workload. Late in the season, Jaguar Racing put him behind the wheel of their R3 and once there, Antonio impressed team bosses enough to sign him up for his debut season in Formula One and in 2003 he will partner Mark Webber at the Milton Keynes based squad.