Preview: International F3000 Championship 2003, Imola - race 1.
April 18 – 19th, 2003.

Easter weekend means racing weekend!

Patrick Friesacher and Vitantonio Liuzzi (Red Bull Junior Team) facing the first race of the 2003 championship in Imola. 

This year, the Red Bull Juniors Patrick Friesacher and Vitantonio Liuzzi will be starting for the traditional Italian Formula 3000 Team of Coloni Motorsport. Coloni Motorsport made it to second place twice in last year’s championship: Giorgio Pantano won the drivers’ championship and they also finished second in the teams’ championship. 

The Formula 3000 still is the most important preliminary series on the way to the Formula 1. A total of 8 (!) former Formula 3000 drivers will be starting in the Formula 1 this year: Juan Pablo Montoya, Ralf Schumacher, Nick Heidfeld, Heinz Harald Frentzen, Olivier Panis, Mark Webber, as well as the new drivers Justin Wilson and Antonio Pizzonia. 

The races to the international Formula 3000 Championship will again be held on Saturdays, as support races for the European Formula 1. 

Compared to last year, nothing has changed on the technical side: The chassis is a Lola, the engine a Zytek V8 with approximately 500 hp and the tyres are uniform Avon tyres. In addition, there will be a new exhaust, which will make the Formula 3000 cars sound more like the Formula 1 ones. 

Patrick Friesacher 

For Patrick Friesacher, still 22 years old, this season is the most important one in his career. The young Austrian will have to optimize his performance in order to reach his big goal, the Formula 1. It’s already Friesacher’s third year as a Red Bull Junior in the Formula 3000. Unfortunately, the 2002 season was rather disappointing for him, the best result being a 2nd place in the classic Monte Carlo race. 

Friesacher: “I am fully aware that I have to show what I can do this year and I think I will be able to do so in the new surrounding. My motivation is back and I will of course try to be amongst the top up from the beginning of the championship! All the pre-seasonal tests have been very promising!“ 

Vitantonio Liuzzi

So far, Vitantonio Liuzzi’s career has been a rapid one: Only two years ago, he was Cart Champion and started in the German Formula Renault Championship. Last year, especially in the second half of the season, he then already gave proof of his huge talent in the German Formula 3 Championship: 
His outstanding victory in the Italian Championship as well as two second places and two pole positions in the German Championship are the reason for his promotion to the Formula 3000. For the first time, Liuzzi was able to test a Williams-BMW Formula 1 car! 

Liuzzi: “The Formula 3000 is of course a huge step forward for me but I am convinced I will be able to assert myself in this series up from the beginning, even though there are some circuits I don’t know yet!“