Giorgio Pantano

Giorgio Pantano (4 February 1979 - Present): Italian racing driver from Padua who drove for Jordan Formula One team for much of the 2004 season. Starting karting at age 10 in 1989, he achieved remarkable early success, winning Italian and European Cadet karting titles in his first year, the 1994 Italian and World Junior karting titles, and the 1995-1996 European Formula A championships. He won the 2000 German Formula 3 Championship on debut and finished third in the 2003 International Formula 3000 series with two wins. Fernando Alonso once considered him 'invincible' in junior formulae.

Despite being set to debut for Jaguar, he lost the seat to Christian Klien who brought $10 million from Red Bull sponsorship, instead signing with Jordan in early 2004 after minimal testing. His disappointing season saw him replaced by Timo Glock after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. He later revealed it was his choice to stop racing due to financial burden on his family and feelings the team favored teammate Heidfeld. He won the 2008 GP2 Series and became the most successful driver in F1 feeder championships history (F2/F3000/GP2) with fourteen cumulative wins before retiring in 2014.