Alexandre Tagliani (born October 18, 1972) is a Canadian auto racing driver from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He currently competes in the IZOD IndyCar Series, driving the #77 entry for Sam Schmidt Motorsports.
Tagliani is well–known for his Champ Car career. He raced in the series since 2000, when it was still known as CART, until its demise in 2007. He was signed by Forsythe Racing for the 2000 season replacing Greg Moore.
He came close to obtaining his first victory in only his third start, after taking pole position at Brazil and leading most of the race, but spun out from the lead with nine laps to go.
In 2001, he had the misfortune of being involved in the collision with Alex Zanardi which caused Zanardi's legs to be amputated.
He remained at Forsythe until the end of 2002, when he was substituted by Paul Tracy. He found a job with the Rocketsports team in 2003, and remained there for the 2004 season, in which he earned his first and only Champ Car victory at Road America.
In 2005 he joined Team Australia, which was essentially a rebranding of Derrick Walker's long-running team with the support of Australian businessman Craig Gore, and finished 7th in the championship despite lacking a race engineer. 7th would equal the best of his 3 top-10 championship finishes.
He returned to Rocketsports for the 2007 season, and finished 10th in points with a best finish of 4th in the first race of the season. He earned four pole positions during his Champ Car career.
In 2008, after the Rocketsports team decided not to take part in the IndyCar Series, Tagliani made the transition to stock cars and began racing in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. He also drove for Conquest Racing in the IndyCar Series Detroit Grand Prix, replacing the injured Enrique Bernoldi. Tagliani continued in the seat for the last two races of the season.
Conquest Racing announced that Tagliani would return as a full–time driver for the 2009. However, the team ultimately concentrated on road and street course races after the Indianapolis 500; ninth place in Toronto proved his best result. Tagliani left Conquest Racing after the 2009 Rexall Edmonton Indy race in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
It was announced on August 28th, 2009, that Tagliani had signed a four–year deal with an option for a fifth year to drive for start–up FAZZT Race Team in the IZOD IndyCar Series beginning in 2010.
After a successful 2010 campaign with Tagliani, FAZZT Race Team was looking forward to an even more successful 2011 season, along with the possible expansion on the grid with a second entry. However, the team was purchased by Sam Schmidt on March 1, 2011, and was absorbed into his Sam Schmidt Motorsports team. Tagliani was retained, along with all sponsors, and he will continue to race full–time during the 2011 season. He will also be racing alongside new Sam Schmidt Motorsports (SSM) teammates Townsend Bell, Wade Cunningham, and Jay Howard. In 2011 during the 100th anniversary of the first running of the Indianapolis 500, Alex qualified pole at a four-lap average of 227.472 mph beating Scott Dixon in the last run of the day driving for Sam Schmitt.