Like most racing drivers Patrick Friesacher started his racing career in Karting at the age of nine. In 1991 and 1992, he finished third in the Austrian Karting Championship. He then switched to the prestigious Italian Series that he won 1995.

Disaster struck in 1997 when Friesacher had a horrifying Karting accident at Graz-Unterpremstaetten. The accident almost ended his racing career; he had to spend six weeks in hospital with a broken shin.

But he bounced back and competed in the Formula Renault Championship in 1998. He took two wins, eight podiums, four pole positions and finished third overall in the championship.

In 1999 he raced in the French F3B Championship. He finished third overall and took two wins, three pole positions and made four visits to the podium.

In 2000, he participated in German F3 Championship with Team BSR. He took two wins and a second place at Hockenheim, this saw him finish sixth in the championship.

In 2001 he progressed into F3000 with Red Bull Juniors. It was a difficult season for Friesacher who’s car was plagued by retirements, he only finished 13^th in the championship.

In 2002 he remained with Red Bull Juniors and took a strong second place at Monaco. He finished ninth overall in the Championship.

In 2003 he moved to Coloni Motorsport who were now sponsored by his backers; Red Bull. The young Austrian put in some strong performances and took his first F3000 victory at Hungary. He finished fifth in the Championship, despite having to miss four races due to a broken arm.

In 2004 his long-term support from Red Bull came to an end, as they preferred to back Christian Klien in his debut F1 season. But that didn’t stop Friesacher, he switched to Super Nova for the first part of the season but he moved back to Coloni Motorsport for the second half of the season, he fought off Tonio Liuzzi to win the Hungarian round and had several other podiums, this saw him finishes fifth in the championship.

On 22^nd November 2004, Patrick made his Formula One debut when he tested for Minardi, along with Tiago Monteiro and Chanoch Nissany. It was no surprise that Friesacher was the quickest of them.

In early February it looked set that Paul Stoddart was going to announce that Patrick Friesacher was to be Minardis test driver in 2005 and that Nicolas Kiesa was going to be the second racing driver but, Kiesa could not meet the required funding to pay for his seat while, Friesacher could. So the Aussie team boss promoted Patrick from official test driver to official racing driver.

But the Austrian cheque failed to clear after the British Grand Prix and he was shown the door. Now Friesacher is now trying to collect enough sponsorship money together to pay for another season in F1.