2004 FIA F3000 teams & drivers?

[crozier74]

I read in this week's Autosport the following:

The future of the F3000 International Championship has been secured following the confirmation that the 10 teams listed in Autosport last week have signed up to race in the series next year. Motorsport governing body the FIA set a deadline of December 1 for at least 18 cars to be promised for the series to go ahead next season.

As I didn't get the previous week's issue, I don't know who they mentioned! Also, I can't find info on this anywhere on the 'net. Can anyone give me a list of the 10 teams and any drivers they have confirmed? Do they include the following, and if so who are the other three teams? Are Red Bull out of the series?

Arden
Townsend Bell/Vitantonio Liuzzi

Coloni
Enrico Toccacelo/Rob Nguyen

Super Nova
Olivier Pla/Sam Hancock

Ma-Con
Tony Schmidt/Toshihiro Kaneishi

Durango
Yannick Schroeder/Rodrigo Ribeiro

Signature
?/?

BCN
?/?

???
?/?

???
?/?

???
?/?

Thanks

[unofficialf3000]

As far as I'm aware the following teams must have signed up:

Arden International
Team Astromega
BCN F3000
Coloni Motorsport
"Coloni 2" [former Red Bull Jr team]
Durango
Ma-Con Engineering
Signature Competition
Super Nova Racing
Victory Engineering [FRV6 team bought ISR-Charouz cars, which are now being prepared by Durango; team has been named in testing as "Charouz Durango" and "Durango 2" and seems to have some affiliation with Charouz].

As for confirmed drivers, I'm only sure of Townsend Bell at Arden (under contract for 2004) and Olivier Pla at Super Nova.

Hope this helps, I'm still confused exactly what's going on with Victory/Charouz Durango.

[x_dt]

Where will Red Bull's sponsorship go next year?

[Daisy]

I think they will just sponsor individual drivers (Liuzzi) like in F3 and World Series.

[SALEEN S7R]

Looks like a good entry list - hopefully all the teams will have the neccarcy budgets to contest the whole season.

[BootsOntheSide]

I doubt that they will be financially secure, considering the events of recent seasons. At least half the teams will be dependant on new drivers coming along with part-season budgets by the end of the season, and Coloni and Durango may especially struggle to run 4 cars.

Hopefully some capable guys with funding will be found to fill the grid - a repeat of 2003's farcical constant changeovers could be the category's death knell.

[SALEEN S7R]

Durango I can see having problems running 4 cars, Coloni I dont see so many issues. They are a bigger and better team and are more on drivers wish lists than Durango. U are right though, next season's F3000 needs to go smoothly, hopefully paving the way for a resurgance in 2005 when Formula 2 is back.

[DanFlag]

At least "game is on" !!!

[SALEEN S7R]

Dany Incidently, what will u do when F3000 is re-named Formula 2? Will www.f3000.com still be f3000.com? Or might the website address change?

[DanFlag]

Hi Saleen S7R, long time no talk.

We bought this: http://www.f2-live.com

[SALEEN S7R]

nice, thanks Dany.

[unofficialf3000]

Originally posted by DanFlag
We bought this: http://www.f2-live.com

Great news Dany!

[DanFlag]

:-)

[alonso11]

As far as I know Raffaele Gianmaria is on 2 years deal with Durango and also I recall he said in an interview after the season finale in Monza that he stays in the category and hope to convert this experience into better results next season.Actually he was one of the most pleasant surprises of the F3000 season for me! We saw a couple of awesome overtaking maneuvres from him and he always made the most out of his relatively low qualifiyng positions in the races! He is really a good, entertaining racer to watch,if he can improve his qualifiyng pace then he can have a strong season in 2004 and mix with the front-runners regularly

[Bigwigg]

What's the story with this Sam Hancock character? Does it look like he's up to take on bigger things(F1 for example) for the future?

You keeping alright Saleen?

[*formula3*]

according to his website, norbert siedler sees himself with a topteam in f3000 next year

[SALEEN S7R]

Originally posted by Bigwigg
What's the story with this Sam Hancock character? Does it look like he's up to take on bigger things(F1 for example) for the future?

You keeping alright Saleen?

Sam Hancock is a good driver, but nothing special if u ask me. Recently if I remember rightly he has been competing mainly in sportscars - this year driving for JMB Racing in a Ferrari 360 at Le Mans, although the car failed to finish because of a suspension failure. Hes also competed in the FIA SCC (FIA Sportscar championship) where he was competing in the LMP 900 class in a Lola, again didnt do a great job but had a poor car. Hes also raced for Super Nova this year in F3000 I think and in the past hes competed in FPA taking a couple of wins and a few podiums, I think although not sure that he did a few races in the Barber Dodge series too. Hancock is good enough to race in F3000 but I dont think hes F1 material - he will probably do a year in F3000 then either switch to CART or sportscar racing I think.

Oh and yes im fine thanks.

[Bigwigg]

Not bad then.... Dont remember him driving at le mans though.

Cheers Saleen, glad to hear that your fine!

[Marcel ten Caat]

Latest from Belgium is that Astromega hopes to finalise contracts with Nico Verdonck and Jan Heylen next week.

Heylen is confident the contracts will be signed before next friday.

[Daisy]

Originally posted by *formula3*
according to his website, norbert siedler sees himself with a topteam in f3000 next year

Just a strange thought, but maybe he and Liuzzi (both sponsored by Red Bull) can drive for the 2nd Coloni squad, under the Red Bull flag?? Or is Liuzzi on his way to Arden, were some strong rumours a couple of weeks ago.

[alonso11]

Originally posted by *formula3*
according to his website, norbert siedler sees himself with a topteam in f3000 next year

That can be a Draco Euro3000 drive as well

[chunterer]

Glad it's still gonna be on, but 18 cars? that's not good. What about the overall quality of drivers? 2003 wasn't exactly mega and i reckon only four of the regular runners at best would constitute potential half decent GP drivers.

The glory days have gone for good? Hopefully the new regs will make budgets more sensible and attract good drivers and sponsors again, i hate to see my fav formula suffering like this!

[BootsOntheSide]

Last year's field was definately the weakest in living memory. It didn't help that so many drivers came and went so quickly, meaning that they had little chance to really learn the cars or tracks (soemthing that's hard enough in F3000 due to the lack of testing and practice laps).

2004 seems unliekly to be much better, because there's still a lack of team funding, which always makes for a lot of paydrivers and rookies.

[Mekola]

Team Arden made an offer to Argentinian racer and RDD driver José MarÃ*a López to race for them next year, according to the Argentinian newspaper ClarÃ*n.
The only other source I know to hold this are the declarations of the Arden team owner about López last November, when the Argentinian impressed and marked the fastest time on the collective F3000 test at Estoril driving for team Arden. Horner said then that he will try to contract López, or make pressure to keep him out of F3000 instead.
López evaluates to enter F3000 if Renault decide not to bring him to a Minardi F1 seat; he assures that it is his best option because he can learn there the circuits used by F1, but IMHO it could damage his prestige. I prefer (if Jos Verstappen or Heikki Kovalainen were selected as the second Minardi driver in F1), he would elect the vacant Gabord seat on the World Series and then fighting for his possible third consecutive championship and avoiding the "F3000 champions malediction".

[cos]

I guess 10 teams aren't confirmed just yet, otherwise why would the WMC say this:

The 2004 F3000 International Championship is dependent on the receipt of sufficient entries. A final decision on the Championship will be taken at the end of January.