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Hard to believe but it is over 50 years since an Italian last won the Formula One World Championship.
Many, most probably due to legendary teams such as Alfa Romeo, Maserati and of course Ferrari, regard motor racing as the domain, the national sport, of Italy. Yet since Giuseppe Farina won the inaugural title in 1950 and Alberto Ascari took back-to-back titles in 1952 and 1953, no Italian has won motor racing's ultimate prize.
Over the years there have been many pretenders, young Italian chargers that showed promise, yet none have taken up where Farina and Ascari left off.
In recent times Giancarlo Fisichella has shown promise, but sadly never had the right car, whilst Jarno Trulli has yet to fully deliver. Waiting in the wings are a number of youngsters that have the Italian media fired up in anticipation, one such driver is Giorgio Pantano.
Aged 9 he began his motor sport career, as ever, in karts. Five years later, aged 14, he was Italian Champion, European Champion and World Champion, all at Junior level. The following year he successfully defended his Italian and World titles before switching to Formula A Karts for 1995.
Having dominated karting at Junior level, Giorgio was equally successful in Formula A, winning the European Championship in 1995 and 1996 before moving up to Super A in 1997 and finishing 3rd in the world Championships.
The highlight of his 1998 season was finishing third in the Paris Cup at Bercy, while in 1999 he took part in his last kart race - finishing 3rd in the Formula Super A World Championship - before switching to single-seaters. Aged 20, he finished third in the Formula Palmer Audi winter series in addition to testing an F3000 car for Team Astromega.
2000 was an amazing season, even by Giorgio's standards. He won the German F3 Championship, at the first attempt, in addition to a further F3000 test and also tests for the Benetton Formula One team at Jerez and Valencia.
In 2001 he made his F3000 debut with Astromega. It was a tough year but Giorgio improved steadily wrapping up the season with a fine win at Monza. As further proof that he was F1-bound, the young Italian spent two days testing for McLaren at Jerez, team boss Ron Dennis subsequently revealing that he was very impressed. Back home in Italy, the media was impressed too, consequently Giorgio was named Autosprint International Driver of the Year, previous winners include Michael Schumacher and Jarno Trulli.
He remained in F3000 for 2002, but moved to the Coloni team. Three wins, three 3rds and three 4ths wasn't enough to secure the title, but it was enough for runner-up spot. The youngster wrapped up his season by winning the two-seater Minardi F1x2 race at Donington Park, beating Fernando Alonso. His F3000 win at Barcelona had been Coloni's first, after six years in the Formula.
In 2003 despite rumours of an F1 test role, Giorgio remained in F3000 but now moved to Durango. He finished third in the championship courtesy of two wins (and two pole positions), and also became the first F3000 driver to win races with three different teams.
Even though it looked as though the signing of Jos Verstappen was going to be a formality, Jordan suddenly announced that Giorgio was to be given a couple of trial runs in its 2004 contender, the EJ14. A few days later, on Friday 13 of February, the Irish outfit announced that the Italian would partner Nick Heidfeld this season.
Let's hope that the (strange) choice of date of the announcement isn't a portent of another poor season for the Silverstone-based team, and that Giorgio gets the opportunity to display his undoubted talent.
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