Toyota's Briscoe confirmed at Nordic

The Australian, whose deal was predicted in AUTOSPORT magazine (January 17), will line up alongside Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner at the outfit which took Briton Justin Wilson to last year's title.

The move will be seen as a vote of confidence in the Grand Prix support series, which is struggling to attract full grids for 2002. Toyota has chosen the category over Formula 3 as the best place to groom the 20-year-old.

Italian Formula Renault champion Briscoe said: "F3000 is a difficult class for newcomers, but it is good for the series to have the interest of Formula 1 teams like Toyota. With the new car for this year, there should be a big improvement in the class. For me, it will be good to learn the F1 tracks and be part of the F1 atmosphere."

Nordic team boss Derek Mower said: "We were looking at four experienced drivers, but none were available, so we decided to go for a young guy. In our search we realised that whatever Ryan has done, he has always been extremely quick."

Mower also welcomed Toyota's support of F3000. "If Ryan is successful, other F1 teams will take notice," he said. "F3000 is still a genuine training ground for F1."

Toyota's other affiliated young drivers, Frenchman Franck Perera and Swede Alex Storckenfeldt, have also lined up race drives for 2002. They will both drive for the Prema Powerteam in the Italian FRenault series.