Patrick Friesacher

Patrick Friesacher's career almost ended before it had even started, when the young Austrian suffered a terrifying accident in karting as a 16-year-old. It took months to make a full recovery, but determined to become a racing driver, Friesacher moved into the French Formula Campus series where he came in 3rd in 1998. After stints in French and German Formula 3, Friesacher spent four seasons in F3000, with two victories in Hungary in 2003 and 2004. In 2005 he managed to secure a drive with Minardi, with backing from the government of his home state, Carinthia and its governor Joerg Haider. His qualifying performance was pretty similar to that of his teammate Christijan Albers, though they both couldn't compete with others at the start of the season, as the new car was not ready for the first three races.

Friesacher took home 3 points for coming in sixth, and last, at the notorious United States GP in which only the six Bridgestone cars competed. In spite of a decent performance against his teammate, Friesacher left the sport after 11 races when his sponsorship ran dry. After Formula 1, Friesacher joined the American Le Mans series and worked at the newly formed A1GP series as a development driver. In 2008 his active racing career came to an end when he broke three vertebrae in a crash with an A1GP car. He currently works as an instructor at Red Bull's race track in Austria.