Fisichella joins forces with Coloni

Team principal Paolo Coloni formally announced the joint venture, which will be race as FMS International, at the Bologna Car Show today.

Fisichella already owns a team in the Italian Formula 3000 championship, which his driver Luca Filippi won this year, prompting the step up to GP2 with his partner and manager Enrico Zanarini.

The pair have been in negotiations with Coloni, whose company runs the now renamed Formula 3000 International as well as the GP2 team, for some time before finally agreeing terms in the last few days.

Coloni, who remains the team principal, was thrilled to announce the union: "It is fantastic. Giancarlo and I have raced each other in the past and we have a lot of respect for each other, and we look forward to a strong partnership and to beating ART."

When asked what the deal means to the team, Coloni replied: "The team is going to be dramatically, positively changed in the year to come - new people, new personnel - it's going to be a full Italian package of engineers.

"We are going to have two or three ex-Formula One engineers joining the team. This is of course boosting the existing structure of people, and I can't wait to start the new programme."

The team's cars will now change from predominantly red to a combination of yellow, white and black, with which the Coloni Formula One team formerly raced.

Despite the team existing in one form or another for decades, Coloni was philosophical about the name change: "We are in this joint venture with Giancarlo to create the best team ever in the formula, and it doesn't matter so much - if a new sponsor arrives then you might have to change the name at any time.

"For me what is fantastic is to be able to raise the quality of the drivers and the level of working within the team, and that will be a massive benefit - to be able to bring up drivers from our championship into GP2, and that we can provide this step up eventually to Formula One.

"Coloni has always worked in the past to make programmes to move up to Formula One, and I don't think that we could have done this in a better way than we have now done."