Pitpass can confirm that at a press conference at the Casino in Velden, Austria today, Patrick Friesacher has been officially confirmed as Minardi's second driver in 2005, and will line up alongside Christijan Albers, who was confirmed at the end of 2004.

The second race seat was due to go to Nicolas Kiesa, however, despite a number of revised deadlines, the young Dane was unable to come up with the required funding.

The team was always scheduled to hold a press conference in Austria today, but it was originally planned to announce Friesacher as test driver. However, once details of the press conference were revealed on Friday (11 February), the heat was on, as Kiesa attempted to find funding. Having missed Monday's noon deadline, the team finally opted to promote Friesacher to the full race seat.

"He a good addition to the team," a spokesperson told Pitpass, "they should really push one another."

Pitpass has been told that the Italian team is in no rush to name its test and reserve driver, and that it's quite possible the team will not run a third car in Melbourne.

With today's news, only one seat remains vacant for the coming season, that being the second seat at Red Bull. With David Coulthard already confirmed for one car, the team has yet to choose between Christian Klien and Vitantonio Liuzzi for the second.

"For me, it is the realisation of a long-held dream to be in Formula One," said Friesacher at today's press conference. "I am also extremely happy that I will be making my debut in the World Championship with Minardi. I know many of the people in the team, and it really is just like a big family. There is a great atmosphere, and when you consider how many top F1 drivers have started their careers at Minardi, I can’t think of a better place to start mine. In fact, I feel honoured to be part of the team, and will do my very best for them this season. I’m training really hard at the moment to ensure my fitness is good, but I can’t wait for the season to get under way in Australia. This is a great opportunity, and I intend to make the most of it."

"We are very pleased to have signed Patrick," said Paul Stoddart. "He impressed team personnel enormously when he tested for us at Misano in November, and he was undoubtedly one of the stars of the show at the memorable South African F1x2 Grand Prix at Kyalami last year. He’s a quick, and equally importantly, consistent driver, who is also capable of providing good technical feedback to the engineers. I firmly believe the combination of Patrick and team mate, Christijan Albers, will provide Minardi with an extremely strong young driver line-up this season."