]]
(b.
September 26 ,
1980 ) is an
Austrian Formula One driver who drove for the
Minardi team during the first half of the
2005 Season .
Born in
Wolfsberg , Friesacher began
Kart Racing at an early age. In
1998 , he moved to the
French Formula Campus series, finishing third in the season. In
1999 , Friesacher advanced to the French
Formula 3 'B' class, before moving to the
German Formula 3 series in
2000 .
In
2001 , Friesacher jumped to
Formula 3000 , where he scored three top-six finishes for the
Red Bull Junior Team . He stayed with Red Bull throughout
2002 and
2003 , winning a race at the
Hungaroring . Later that year, he joined the Super Nova squad; in
2004 , he won another race (again in
Hungary ), this time for the
Coloni team.
In
November 2004, Friesacher tested for Minardi at the Misano Adriatico circuit in
Italy , impressing team principle
Paul Stoddart . On
February 14 ,
2005 , he
Signed a one-year deal to teammate with
Christijan Albers , another former Formula 3000 driver and F1 rookie.
ITV 's
Martin Brundle noted during his debut race that he felt Patrick had never looked like a potential F1 driver.
In the
2005 United States Grand Prix he picked up 3
Formula One Championship points despite finishing last; this is because he came 6th out of the 6 drivers who competed as 7 teams pulled out for tyre safety reasons.
On
July 19th , 2005 it was announced that Friesacher had been dropped from the Minardi team due to the failure of his personal sponsors to pay Minardi the amounts agreed at the start of the season. (It is common for poorer F1 teams to employ "pay" drivers who contribute financially to the team via personal sponsorships.) In any case, Albers had generally outperformed Patrick. Friesacher was replaced in the lineup by
Robert Doornbos who completed the rest of the season for Minardi.
(Note: grands prix in denote '''points scoring''' races.)
In 2006, Friesacher joined the
A1 Grand Prix of nations racing for his home country,
Austria for the Mexican Grand Prix. He clinched 18th in his first A1 qualifying session.
