Patrick
Friesacher

Patrick Friesacher was born in Wolfsberg, Austria, on 26 September 1980. He began with motocross at the age of five and moved to karting in 1990, after seeing a race at the A1-Ring. In 1994 he joined Red Bull's junior programme. He finished third in the French Formula Campus series in 1998 and third in the B class of French Formula 3 in 1999. In 2000 he took two wins on his way to sixth place in German Formula 3. From 2001 he raced in Formula 3000 for the Red Bull Junior Team, finishing 13th in his first season. He then took tenth in 2002, with his first podium at Monaco, and fifth in 2003, including a win in Hungary. In 2004 he began the season with Super Nova, moved to Coloni after the first four races and again finished fifth, with another win at the Hungaroring. At the end of 2004 Red Bull dropped him after he had refused to move to Formula Nippon.

In November 2004 Friesacher tested for Minardi at Misano and set the fastest time of the day. In 2005 he was the team's regular driver and started 11 races. He made his debut in Australia, starting 16th and finishing 17th. His best grid position came at Monaco, where he lined up 13th. At the United States Grand Prix he was classified sixth of the six drivers on Bridgestone tyres and scored his only three championship points. He ended the season 21st in the standings. The British Grand Prix was his last Formula One race, and Robert Doornbos then took over his car for the rest of the year.

In 2006 Friesacher drove for Austria in A1 Grand Prix at the round in Mexico and scored three points in total. In 2008 he raced in the American Le Mans Series for Risi Competizione, sharing a Ferrari F430 with Harrison Brix. After leaving Formula One he also drove exhibition runs for Red Bull Racing and worked as an instructor at the Red Bull Ring. In 2017 and 2018 he was part of the driver line-up for the two-seater F1 Experiences cars. His younger brother Kevin is also a racing driver.

Source: Wikipedia, “Patrick Friesacher”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.