Force Indian Driver Giancarlo Fisichella

Nationality: Italian
Team: Force India
Podium Finish: 18
Date of Birth: January 14, 1973
Place of Birth: Rome, Italy
Giancarlo Fisichella has driven in Formula One for Renault Sauber, Jordan, Benetton and Minardi before joining new Force India Team on 10 January 2008.
Like most current Formula One drivers, he began kart racing as a youngster. In 1992, he competed in the Italian Formula Three series, racing for the RC Motorsport team. He finished runner up in 1993, and in 1994 he won the championship, following race victories in Monaco and Macau. He left open-wheel racing briefly in 1995, driving for Alfa Romeo in the International Touring Car Championship series.
In 1996, he made the move to Formula One, making his debut for the Minardi team. However he did not complete the full season since Minardi required a driver who could bring funding to the team, and replaced Fisichella with Giovanni Lavaggi.
Fisichella has won three races in his career to date, the first of which was at the chaotic 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix, a race abandoned for safety reasons with 15 laps remaining. After much confusion regarding rules and technicalities (which lasted for several days)
Fisichella was eventually declared the winner in the following week, and collected his trophy in an unorthodox ceremony at the following race.
Fisichella had endured mixed fortunes at his last team, Renault. He was brought in to the team to replace fellow Italian Jarno Trulli, and won his first race with the team in Australia in 2005.
However, after that race it was his team-mate, the Spanish driver Fernando Alonso win the greater share of races for Renault. Although highly rated as a driver, Fisichella was unable to keep pace with eventual champion Alonso, managing just one further race win since his debut. Outside of driving, he runs his own GP2 team, FMS International.