2000 International Formula 3000 Championship Explained

The 2000 International Formula 3000 season was the thirty-fourth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also sixteenth season under the International Formula 3000 Championship moniker. It featured the 2000 FIA Formula 3000 International Championship which was contested over ten rounds from 8 April to 26 August 2000. Bruno Junqueira won the Drivers’ Championship^[1] and D2 Playlife Super Nova won the Teams’ title.^[2]

For 2000, the FIA imposed an upper limit of 15 teams of 2 cars each, with one of the places reserved for the winning team of the 1999 Italian Formula 3000 Championship; therefore, 7 bottom-ranked teams of 1999 would not have been eligible to advance to the next year.^[3] Portman-Arrows team collapsed midway through the 1999 championship, and 6 formerly competing teams were initially excluded from the 2000 championship.

In between the seasons, RSM Marko managed to buy the Oreca's slot (at the same time adopting the name Red Bull Junior Team), Arden merged with Draco, and Coloni bought the slot from Team Martello, the winners of the Italian championship; therefore, only Monaco Motorsport, GP Racing and Durango were left behind. Additionally, West Competition was renamed to mySap.com, and the second Super Nova squad (former Den Blå Avis) continued to operate under the name of Petrobras Junior Team.^[4]

As the FIA was changing the operational structure of Formula 3000 for the latter to be more of a proper seeder and supporting series for Formula One, a few F3000 teams announced their collaboration with Formula One teams. European Formula was confirmed as a junior team for Arrows instead of the de-funct Portman team, Team Astromega announced partnership with Minardi, and Super Nova announced two partnerships: with Benetton, as D2 Super Nova, and with Williams, as Petrobras Junior Team (former Den Blå Avis). Additionally, mySap.com was officially recognized as the McLaren junior team, Red Bull Junior Team retained the status of a junior team for Sauber, and Apomatox continued to run under Prost as Gauloises Formula. Although Arden's Darren Manning spent the full year as a BAR test driver, the BAR team opted not to work with Arden, and Ferrari, Jordan, and Jaguar also did not maintain active partnerships with any of the Formula 3000 teams.

Drivers and teams

The following drivers and teams contested the 2000 FIA Formula 3000 International Championship.

Team		Driver	Rounds
MySap.com	1	Stéphane Sarrazin	1–6
		Tomas Scheckter	7–10
	2	Tomáš Enge	All
D2 Playlife Super Nova	3	Nicolas Minassian	All
	4	David Saelens	All
Petrobras Junior Team	5	Jaime Melo	All
	6	Bruno Junqueira	All
Team Astromega	7	Fernando Alonso	All
	8	Fabrice Walfisch	1–6
		Marc Goossens	7–10
Gauloises Formula	9	André Couto	All
	10	Sébastien Bourdais	All
Kid Jensen Racing	11	Andrea Piccini	All
	12	Bas Leinders	All
Red Bull Junior Team F3000	15	Ricardo Mauricio	All
	16	Enrique Bernoldi	All
Nordic Racing	17	Kevin McGarrity	All
	18	Justin Wilson	All
WRT	19	Hidetoshi Mitsusada	1–3
		Marc Hynes	4–6
		Dino Morelli	7–8
		Soheil Ayari	9–10
	20	Ananda Mikola	All
DAMS	21	Franck Montagny	All
	22	Kristian Kolby	All
Arden Team Russia	23	Darren Manning	All
	24	Viktor Maslov	All
European Arrows F3000	25	Mark Webber	All
	26	Christijan Albers	All
Witmeur KTR	27	Jeffrey van Hooydonk	All
	28	Yves Olivier	All
Fortec Motorsport	29	Mario Haberfeld	1–3, 6–10
		Jamie Davies	4–5
	30		10
		Andreas Scheld	1–9
Coloni F3000	31	Soheil Ayari	1–7
		Fabrice Walfisch	9–10
	32	Fabrizio Gollin	All
Sources:^[5] ^[6]

All cars were Lola B99/50s powered by Zytek V8 engines.^[7]

Calendar

Round	Circuit	Date	Laps	Distance	Time	Speed	Pole Position	Fastest Lap	Winner	Winning Team	Report
1	nowrap	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari	nowrap	8 April	42	4.9325=207.165 km	1'11:06.160	174.816 km/h	nowrap	Bruno Junqueira	nowrap	Stéphane Sarrazin	nowrap	Nicolas Minassian	nowrap	D2 Playlife Super Nova	Report
2	nowrap	Silverstone Circuit	nowrap	22 April	40	5.14=205.60 km	1'22:24.239	149.702 km/h	nowrap	Darren Manning	nowrap	Stéphane Sarrazin	nowrap	Mark Webber	nowrap	European Arrows F3000	Report
3	nowrap	Circuit de Catalunya	nowrap	5 May	44	4.728=208.032 km	1'11:52.069	173.679 km/h	nowrap	Enrique Bernoldi	nowrap	Mark Webber	nowrap	Bruno Junqueira	nowrap	Petrobras Junior Team	Report
4	nowrap		nowrap	20 May	45	4.556=205.02 km	1'24:07.032	146.239 km/h	nowrap	David Saelens	nowrap	Bruno Junqueira	nowrap	Bruno Junqueira	nowrap	Petrobras Junior Team	Report
5	nowrap		nowrap	3 June	50	3.367=168.35 km	1'19:08.755	127.625 km/h	nowrap	David Saelens	nowrap	Fernando Alonso	nowrap	Bruno Junqueira	nowrap	Petrobras Junior Team	Report
6	nowrap		nowrap	1 July	49	4.25=208.25 km	1'15:44.627	164.964 km/h	nowrap	Sébastien Bourdais	nowrap	Mark Webber	nowrap	Nicolas Minassian	nowrap	D2 Playlife Super Nova	Report
7	nowrap		nowrap	15 July	48	4.319=207.312 km	1'10:42.354	175.922 km/h	nowrap	Jeffrey van Hooydonk	nowrap	Tomáš Enge	nowrap	Nicolas Minassian	nowrap	D2 Playlife Super Nova	Report
8	nowrap		nowrap	29 July	31	6.823=211.513 km	1'14:50.567	169.566 km/h	nowrap		nowrap	Darren Manning	nowrap	Tomáš Enge	nowrap	MySap.com	Report
9	nowrap		nowrap	12 August	52	3.972=206.544 km	1'21:30.052	152.055 km/h	nowrap	Bruno Junqueira	nowrap	Marc Goossens	nowrap	Bruno Junqueira	nowrap	Petrobras Junior Team	Report
10	nowrap		nowrap	26 August	30	6.968=209.04 km	1'08:04.964	184.223 km/h	nowrap	Fernando Alonso	nowrap	Fernando Alonso	nowrap	Fernando Alonso	nowrap	Team Astromega	Report
Source:^[8]

Final points standings

Teams

Position

Team

Imo

Sil

Bar

Nur

Mon

Mag

A1-R

Hoc

Hun

Spa

Total

1

D2 Playlife Super Nova

10

–

10

–

6

14

10

–

3

7

60

2

Petrobras Junior Team

9

2

10

11

10

–

2

–

10

–

54

3

MySAP.com Team

2

–

–

2

–

3

–

16

–

1

24

4

Team Astromega

–

–

–

–

–

–

1

–

6

16

23

5

European Arrows Team

4

10

–

–

–

–

3

4

–

–

21

6

Nordic Racing.com

–

4

2

–

3

–

6

–

2

2

19

7

Gauloises Formula

–

–

–

7

–

6

–

–

–

–

13

8

Arden Team Russia

–

6

–

–

–

–

4

–

–

–

10

9

Red Bull Junior Team

–

3

–

–

–

–

–

1

5

–

9

10

Coloni F3000

1

1

–

6

–

–

–

–

–

–

8

11

DAMS

–

–

1

–

1

3

–

2

–

–

7

12

Fortec Motorsport

–

–

–

–

6

–

–

–

–

–

6

13

Witmeur Team KTR

–

–

3

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

3

14

Kid Jensen Racing

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

3

–

–

3

15

World Racing Team

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

0

Drivers' championship

Pos Driver IMO SIL CAT NUR MON MAG A1R HOC HUN SPA valign=middle Points 1 Bruno Junqueira 2 5 1 1 1 13 7 Ret 1 9 48 2 Nicolas Minassian 1 11 2 Ret 5 1 1 7 4 3 45 3 Mark Webber 3 1 Ret Ret Ret 16 4 3 9 16 21 4 Fernando Alonso 9 EX 15 Ret 8 Ret 6 Ret 2 1 17 5 Justin Wilson 8 3 5 Ret 7 9 2 Ret 5 5 16 6 Tomáš Enge 5 13 Ret Ret DNQ 5 16 1 17 6 15 7 David Saelens Ret 8 3 Ret 3 3 Ret 18 11 4 15 8 12 2 7 Ret Ret 8 3 13 8 Ret 10 9 Sébastien Bourdais Ret 10 8 4 Ret 2 9 DNS 14 Ret 9 10 Fabrizio Gollin 6 DNQ 17 2 10 14 DNQ Ret 18 Ret 7 11 Jamie Davies 8 2 12 6 12 Marc Goossens 10 10 19 2 6 13 Tomas Scheckter 18 2 21 DNS 6 14 Jaime Melo, Jr. 4 16 14 6 DNQ 17 5 8 DNQ 18 6 15 Franck Montagny Ret 7 6 Ret 6 4 17 Ret 12 Ret 5 16 Enrique Bernoldi Ret 4 Ret Ret Ret 23 14 6 6 10 5 17 Ricardo Mauricio Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 14 3 7 4 18 André Couto Ret 14 10 3 Ret 21 Ret 17 Ret 11 4 19 13 9 4 Ret 9 19 12 Ret Ret Ret 3 20 Andrea Piccini Ret DNQ 11 9 Ret 12 Ret 4 16 13 3 21 Kevin McGarrity 15 Ret Ret Ret 4 15 DNQ 11 Ret DNQ 3 22 Stéphane Sarrazin 7 19 9 5 Ret 6 3 23 Kristian Kolby 11 12 Ret DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 5 20 15 2 24 Soheil Ayari 14 6 Ret Ret Ret 22 Ret 13 14 1 25 Christijan Albers Ret Ret 12 Ret Ret 7 Ret DNQ Ret 8 0 26 Bas Leinders 16 Ret 13 Ret Ret 10 11 DNQ 7 Ret 0 27 Yves Olivier DNQ 20 16 7 DNQ DNQ 13 16 DNQ 17 0 28 Mario Haberfeld 10 17 DNS 11 8 9 15 Ret 0 29 Fabrice Walfisch Ret Ret DNQ Ret Ret 18 10 DNQ 0 30 Andreas Scheld DNQ Ret DNQ DSQ 11 DNQ Ret 12 DNQ 0 31 Ananda Mikola Ret 15 19 DNQ Ret 20 15 DNQ Ret DNQ 0 32 Viktor Maslov DNQ Ret 18 DNQ Ret DNQ Ret 15 DNQ DNQ 0 – Marc Hynes DNQ Ret Ret 0 – Dino Morelli DNQ Ret 0 – Hidetoshi Mitsusada DNQ DNQ DNQ 0 Pos Driver IMO SIL CAT NUR MON MAG A1R HOC HUN SPA valign=middle Points Sources:^[9] ^[10] ^[11]

Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest lap

Notes

• All drivers used Lola B99/50 chassis, with Zytek V8 engines, and Avon tyres.^[5]
• Andreas Scheld was disqualified from second place at the European round (Nürburgring) for using an illegal front wing.

References

1. https://web.archive.org/web/20010611033931/http://www.fia.com/Classements/Class2000/F3000_P_Tot.htm 2000 FIA Formula 3000 International Championship – Drivers
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20010611035526/http://www.fia.com/Classements/Class2000/F3000_T_Tot.htm 2000 FIA Formula 3000 International Championship – Teams
3. https://www.grandprix.com/news/the-dust-settles-in-formula-3000.html The dust settles in Formula 3000
4. http://dizzy1000.tripod.com/reviews/review00.htm FIA International F3000 – Season Review 2000
5. Web site: FIA Formula 3000 Int. Championship – 2000: Entrylist. Speedsport Magazine. 30 December 2023.
6. Web site: F3000 International Championship Entry List 2000. Motorsport Stats. 30 December 2023.
7. International Formual 3000 Championship, Autocourse – 2000/2001, page 297
8. Web site: F3000 International Championship Results 2000. Motorsport Stats. 30 December 2023.
9. Web site: F3000 International Championship Standings 2000. Motorsport Stats. 30 December 2023.
10. Web site: FIA Formula 3000 Int. Championship – Season 2000: Results. Speedsport Magazine. 30 December 2023.
11. Web site: 2000 FIA International F3000 Championship. Motor Sport. 30 December 2023.