Keohane impressed with F3000.

Irish Michael Keohane may yet contest a round of this year's FIA International F3000 Championship following a successful test at Spa-Francorchamps with Team Astromega yesterday [Tuesday].

Completing 13 flying laps of the 6.9km circuit with the Belgian team, the 23-year old Irishman admitted to being impressed with the car, and appeared to adapt readily to the extra power and different handling characteristics it presented when compared to the F3 machine he has driven over the past two seasons.

"The car is very impressive - you have so much power," Keohane said of the test, "Going through Eau Rouge in one of these has to be one of the best experiences I have had in a racing car."

A double race winner in British F3 last season, the Irishman must now decide if he wants to race in F3000 this year, having given up his ride with Promatecme in the domestic championship. If he decides to use part of his budget for a maiden outing in the grand prix support series, it will most likely be at the British round at Silverstone - a track he is very familiar with - in three weeks' time, but things are far from settled in that direction.

"I would love to do a race, but I am not going to rush into making a decision as there are other options I must look at first," Keohane insisted.

It is also not clear whether that debut would be with Astromega or another team. Astromega currently fields Tony Schmidt and Jeffrey van Hooydonk in the FIA F3000 series, although the Belgian driver missed the Austrian round because of financial difficulties. These now appear to have been solved, however, so a vacancy at the team may not be forthcoming.