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 .
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 2002. 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.Scott Speed
www.formula1.com Retrieved 1 July 2007
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. 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 .
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 .
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.
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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.
.]]
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 .
1 He will once again team up with
Vitantonio Liuzzi .
Speed's 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 ,
2 although Tost has since denied this.
3 Speed has also gone on the verbal offensive against the team, claiming that they want to get rid of both him and
Liuzzi .
4 Speed's future with Toro Rosso remained very much in doubt for the rest of that season. Speed says that no amount of money would get him to work with his current team bosses in the future.http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/61125
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.
5 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.
6
() (Races in indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)
Speed currently resides in
Fuschl Am See ,
Austria , where he lives with his girlfriend
Valentina Neuhauser . His brother Alex currently races karts in America.
