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Q & A with Vitantonio Liuzzi

Q. Scuderia Toro Rosso have made their decision about drivers for next year now. Does it make your life easier knowing that you have to go elsewhere?

Vitantonio Liuzzi: For sure I am really relaxed because all my ideas are clarified. I thought this for a couple of months that it was going to go this way. It was a pretty clear move of the team for a long time, but I wasn't negative about this. I was pretty okay, and started moving in different directions quite a bit.

I will just try to give 100 percent again until the end of the season because we need to finish races. It is pretty boring to stop every race when you think you can have a good performance. For sure we have to be objective. It will be difficult to score points, but for it is very crucial to finish races.

Q. Gerhard Berger said recently that he thought you had a bright future in Formula One, but that things did not really gel between the team and yourself. Do you think you will benefit from a different environment?

VL: For sure. In my past with Red Bull Racing we had a very good collaboration together and it was pretty good. But there was no space for me because they wanted to take a different road. Since the beginning we knew at Toro Rosso that we could grow together to create an Italian environment, but it didn't work really well together. I don't know if it is the chemistry.

Gerhard had a different view on some things and he started working since already from last year on the future of Toro Rosso on the Sebastians (Sebastian Vettel and Sebastien Bourdais). I think it didn't work, but for me it was a good experience anyway as I think I grew up a lot.

For me to join such a difficult condition, with a team that has to grow and learn like me as well, I think it taught me much more than if I would have started with a strong team and won every race. I think now I am really ready to show what I can do.

Q. How are talks going for next season?

VL: Yeah, they are going ahead. For sure at the moment everything is in standby as I think Alonso will move all the field. It is normal, he is the world champion and he is the man of the market. It seems like that anyway, although I don't know if it is true or not. So everybody is a bit on standby. My position is moving forwards and I think I have got a quite a good chance for the future.

Q. Williams?

VL: I like the team. They are really great racers and they do everything from the heart. They love winning and they will come back one day. I don't know if my future will be with them but they were the first team to try and test a Formula One car. We will see what happens.

Q. Is the priority racing?

VL: Yes. Racing and racing with a team that wants to win.

Q. In America as well, or would you take an F1 test deal over a Champ Car race seat?

VL: This I cannot say at the moment. My first target is to race in F1 and race in a good environment. That is 99 percent my target. Then we will see.

Q. What are the percentage chances of you getting a race drive for next year?

VL: At the moment I have never thought about a percentage. I think I have got 60-70 percent chance to stay in F1, and the rest I am not thinking about at all. I have other opportunities for sure, but at the moment I am more focused on F1.

Q. What did you think of Bourdais when he did the F1 test?

VL: It is difficult. Sometimes they said in the papers that I underestimated Bourdais or things like this. I just said in the past that he was not impressive and he still has a lot to learn for sure.

He is for sure a very quick driver. He won three Champ Car championships, but in the three tests he did not show to be a new world champion. He has still a lot to improve in his driving for F1, but he is a great talent that is clear.

I didn't underestimate him. In the three tests he did, he wasn't impressive enough to say, 'right let's take this guy straight away.'

Q. Has there been a lot of interest from other teams since the announcement?

VL: Already before. It wasn't just the announcement because it was pretty clear in the team what was going on. So they knew already from before. Nothing changed after the announcement.

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