>>1339the wikipedia article is surprisingly politicized regarding its insistence that it was a cost control problem.
For more than 10 years it existed successfully as a non spec series. The near-collapse of Lola cars unsettled the chassis manufacturer market until they were made the sole chassis supplier (the effects of this can be seen in CART too). Many of the Italian teams were on sketchy financial footing, spurred on by the growth in motorsport markets in the 90s. The series ran some silly and often interesting tracks, but failed to capitalize on being a support race for a larger series like how GP2 races happen before f1 races.
Mismanagement, underhanded tactics, economic issues, logistical failures, and to some extent limited cost control, caused f3000 to become spec, and then to fold.
Japanese formula 3000 survives today (with more regulation, but still more technical than GP2) as super formula.