Career Stats Team Force India Nationality Italian Podiums 18 Points 267 Grand Prix entered 196 World Championships 0 Wins 3 Pole Positions 3 Date of Birth 14/01/1973 Place of Birth Rome

On paper, Giancarlo Fisichella's move from double title winner Renault to the team that has propped up the back of the grid for the past two seasons looks like a depressing prospect.

But Force India could be the ideal home for Fisichella.

The massive injection of cash from billionaire new co-owner Vijay Mallya should get the squad moving in the right direction, and Fisichella is a wise choice for a rising team.

Not only does he have 11 years of handy Formula 1 experience, but some of his finest hours have come when working to get an underdog squad out of the midfield.

Being paired with – and comprehensively overshadowed by – Fernando Alonso at Renault as the Spaniard swept to back-to-back titles did serious damage to Fisichella's reputation.

Unwilling to walk away from F1 yet, Fisichella now has the chance to re-establish himself at Force India.

Career log

The Force India move is a homecoming of sorts for Fisichella, for in its Jordan incarnation the team gave him his first full F1 season and his first win.

He had debuted with Minardi in 1996, but was usurped by a pay driver after eight races.

Jordan then signed him for 1997, and he regularly out-performed team-mate Ralf Schumacher and fought for victory on occasion.

He earned a transfer to manager Flavio Briatore's Benetton squad at the end of the year.

Some perky early performances suggested that Fisichella and fellow young gun Alex Wurz might reinvigorate Benetton.

Instead they slumped towards the midfield as the team's performances became ever more mediocre.

The radical 2001 Benetton initially struggled to even break into the top 20.

But Fisichella excelled, dragging the team forward largely single-handedly and leaving new partner Jenson Button standing.

Yet the Italian was swapped for fellow Briatore protégé Jarno Trulli after 2001, and ended up back at Jordan.

Fisichella continued to enhance his reputation in adversity, keeping his chin up as the cash-strapped team struggled.

He even scored an overdue first win in the wet and wild 2003 Brazilian GP, although confusion amongst the timekeepers meant that he was only awarded the victory five days later.

A season with Sauber in 2004 brought more giant-killing heroics and more tenaciously snatched points – and this time Fisichella got his reward.

Benetton had been transformed into Renault, and it recalled Fisichella just as it hit championship-challenging form.

Unfortunately for Fisichella, it was Alonso who did the title winning while the Italian fell in the number two position and won just twice in 2005/6.

The team hoped he would thrive once Alonso departed last season, but despite a promising start by Fisichella, it was his new team-mate Heikki Kovalainen who emerged as Renault's lead driver.

The early years

Fisichella was Italy's top young prospect in the mid-1990s, starring in karting before winning the national Formula 3 title in 1994.

Minardi then recruited him for testing duties alongside a season with Alfa Romeo in the International Touring Car Championship.

After an erratic but promising first year in saloons, he stayed on in the ITC alongside his F1 commitments in 1996 and continued to impress, only missing out on victories due to team orders.

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