is a
Race Car Driver born on
January 24 ,
1983 in
Manteca ,
California ,
USA . A driver for the
Scuderia Toro Rosso F1 team, he made his
Formula 1 race debut at the
2006 Bahrain Grand Prix .
Speed's career started at the age of 10 in
Karting , his stint there lasting from
1993 until
2000 . He moved up to Formula series in
2001 , competing in
US Formula Russell and becoming champion. Drives 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 .
2004 saw two championship titles for Speed, though, with him first winning in
Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup and later
German Formula Renault . His performances resulted in a drive in the inaugurual 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
Heikki Kovalainen .
In 2005 at the Canadian Grand Prix, Speed worked 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. At the end of
2005 , Speed drove the first three races of the new
A1GP series for Team USA.
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 .
In 2003, Speed was diagnosed with severe
Ulcerative Colitis , but as of March 2006 has remained symptom free for a year.
Speed currently resides in
Fuschl Am See ,
Austria , where he lives with his girlfriend Valentina Neuhauser.
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