GP2 2011 silly season.

[bella]

Originally Posted by chunterer

There are about 6 or 7 decent drivers with the rest being journeymen?

where would you put van der garde and valsecchi in that?

there's definitely quite a few who probably could have invested the couple of million euros a bit better but that's gp2 for you i guess

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

where would you put van der garde and valsecchi in that?

there's definitely quite a few who probably could have invested the couple of million euros a bit better but that's gp2 for you i guess

Ha ha good question....

Davide must surely now be journeyman. If he carries on the way he is he'll easily beat Pantano and Apicella's most starts at F3000/GP2 level (if he hasn't already?).

I would proabably suggest (thinking you might mirror most of the names I put forward!) Bianchi, Gutierrez, Bird, Ericsson, Pic, Grosjean, Giedo and Vietoris as the guys with the most ability but Clos could be if he was more consistent?

[bella]

yeah, i can't work clos out either. racing engineering don't sign drivers who they don't have complete faith in, so let's hope everything comes together this year.

then again, where exactly did the hype come from? was it from karting?

i'm wondering who out of gonzalez and coletti is going to crash the most

[jondownunder]

Team Lotus online launch today and still no confirmation of the Team Air Asia drivers... (presumed to be Valsecchi and Razia)... guess contracts for the GP2 drivers and F1 test drivers haven't been finalised yet?

[bella]

noticed there was no actual official mention of any third drivers?

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by jondownunder

Here you go

Arden - Josef Kral / Jolyon Palmer
Lotus/ART - Jules Bianchi / Esteban Gutierrez
Barwa Addax - Giedo van der Garde / Charles Pic
Carlin - Max Chilton / Mikhail Aleshin
DAMS - Romain Grosjean / Pal Varhaug
iSport - Sam Bird / Marcus Ericsson
ORT - Antonio Felix da Costa? / ?
Racing Engineering - Dani Clos / Christian Vietoris (Main) & Nathanael Berthon (Asia)
Rapax - Fabio Leimer / Julian Leal (Asia - possibly Main)
Scuderia Coloni - Michael Herck / James Jakes
Super Nova - Fairuz Fauzy / Johnny Cecotto Jr (Asia - possibly Main?)
Team Air Asia - Davide Valsecchi? / Luiz Razia?
Trident - Rodolfo Gonzalez / Stefano Coletti

Well, at least I can still hold out hope for Rossi, as he raced for ORT in GP2 Asia last yea, IIRC.

[bella]

italiaracing say that andrea caldarelli is up to something with ocean out in abu dhabi...

http://italiaracing.net/notizia.asp?id=30243&cat=4

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by bella

italiaracing say that andrea caldarelli is up to something with ocean out in abu dhabi...

http://italiaracing.net/notizia.asp?id=30243&cat=4

Why do you hate me, bella?

[formula_fan]

I disagree, I think this is actually an extremely competitve field for GP2. It is hard to really point out the weak links in the field, Leal and maybe Varhaug. Even they have both won races in pretty competitve series. Of all the others they either have relatively high pedigree or a lot of experience. I would say this is a season which has a huge amount of depth.
Still surprising that there is no news on the Ocean drivers, Caldarelli showed good potential in the tests so it would be good to see him move up.

[bella]

Originally Posted by ptclaus98

Why do you hate me, bella?

it's your flag, i can't help but mock anyone that bears it

seriously though, i hope alex gets a quality seat in whatever series. he's top notch, it's about time there was a top american driver in europe.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by formula_fan

I disagree, I think this is actually an extremely competitve field for GP2. It is hard to really point out the weak links in the field, Leal and maybe Varhaug. Even they have both won races in pretty competitve series. Of all the others they either have relatively high pedigree or a lot of experience. I would say this is a season which has a huge amount of depth.
Still surprising that there is no news on the Ocean drivers, Caldarelli showed good potential in the tests so it would be good to see him move up.

That's a good post formula_fan, promoting counter discussion.

Interesting that you feel there aren't really many 'weak links' and that there is indeed depth. It's a welcome positive outlook!

There are a number of drivers on that provisional list who have won things but i'm not necessarily sure that automatically means they've got pedigree. Perhaps you can mention a couple of the other drivers who you feel have real ability?

It does appear that the top drivers are already experienced in these cars (except Gutierrez) but then all of them shone in other series.

In comparison to previous years, whilst 2007 was perhaps a lower quailty season overall, this one does on paper appear to be lacking quality certainly in comparison the the possible FR 3.5 entry that is taking shape?

[bella]

i wonder how much the treasured "winning things" is overrated though. i mean, 2 years ago you stood little chance of winning the f3 euroseries unless you had a number one or number two art/asm drive. in british f3 you need the main carlin drive that the red bull boys usually get. in fr3.5 you need to win the lottery. in f2, obviously you have to be good, but you need to have the backing to move on which considering you were in f2 in the first place says you might not have it in the first place. do the other f3 championships count in the minds of... whoever is wearing the judgement hat at that point as being something that it's important to win?

where does that weigh up against reputation?

[strider]

I don't think any other F3 championships in Europe count for a great deal. The All-Japan Series is strong at the very top and drivers coming over here from there will usually be worth having. In some cases, like Marcus Ericsson, they're coming back here from over there. I hope that's clear.

[formula_fan]

I agree that success doesn't necessarily mean pedigree... but in almost all of these cases it means they have some talent. You can't win an international championship these days by luck alone. I agree with your pick of 10 but also what about Aleshin (admittedly quite experienced) and someone like Leimer?

These are all drivers who I think have real ability, but my point is more about strength in depth. People like Kral, Coletti, Herck, Razia, Valsecchi etc... will all be quick even if it is because they have experience rather than natural talent.

Regarding the FR 3.5 entry, taking away the two red bull drivers the field is not bad for a series on that level, but it isn't on a par with GP2. I think the majority of the GP2 grid would be winning races in FR3.5 if they were in a team capable of doing so.

[jondownunder]

Updated driver list:

Arden - Josef Kral / Jolyon Palmer
Lotus/ART - Jules Bianchi / Esteban Gutierrez
Barwa Addax - Giedo van der Garde / Charles Pic
Carlin - Max Chilton / Mikhail Aleshin
DAMS - Romain Grosjean / Pal Varhaug
iSport - Sam Bird / Marcus Ericsson
ORT - Andrea Caldarelli (Asia) / Oliver Turvey? Antonio Felix da Costa?
Racing Engineering - Dani Clos / Christian Vietoris (Main) & Nathanael Berthon (Asia)
Rapax - Fabio Leimer / Julian Leal (Asia - possibly Main)
Scuderia Coloni - Michael Herck / James Jakes
Super Nova - Fairuz Fauzy / Johnny Cecotto Jr (Asia - possibly Main?)
Team Air Asia - Davide Valsecchi? / Luiz Razia?
Trident - Rodolfo Gonzalez / Stefano Coletti

[Daisy]

Caldarelli and Turvey for Ocean in the Asia series. That's not a bad line up at all!
Razia also confirmed at Air Asia. Just waiting on Valsecchi I guess.

[bella]

team airasia have confirmed what we really knew already:

http://tentenths.com/news/showentry.php?e=1568

[Juntos]

What was Air Asia team waiting for?

[dave not neil]

Originally Posted by Juntos

What was Air Asia team waiting for?

I would imagine the deals weren't 100% before the test. It's a bit of a risk for a driver of Valsecchi's GP2 experience to comit to a brand new team, it could make him look a bit of a fool. I would guess the test was to make sure everybody was happy before any signatures...

[jondownunder]

Updated driver list:

Arden
-Josef Kral
-Jolyon Palmer

Lotus/ART
-Jules Bianchi
-Esteban Gutierrez

Barwa Addax
-Giedo van der Garde
-Charles Pic

Carlin
-Max Chilton
-Mikhail Aleshin

DAMS
-Romain Grosjean
-Pal Varhaug

iSport
-Sam Bird
-Marcus Ericsson

ORT
-Oliver Turvey (Asia)
-Andrea Caldarelli (Asia)

Racing Engineering
-Dani Clos
-Christian Vietoris (Main) / Nathanael Berthon (Asia)

Rapax
-Fabio Leimer
-Julian Leal (Asia - possibly Main) / Davide Rigon? (possibly Main)

Scuderia Coloni
-Michael Herck
-James Jakes

Super Nova
-Fairuz Fauzy
-Johnny Cecotto Jr (Asia - possibly Main?)

Team Air Asia
-Davide Valsecchi
-Luiz Razia

Trident
-Rodolfo Gonzalez
-Stefano Coletti

[p-matt]

Where did the Rigon to Rapax rumour come from? Sounds like a very good match up!

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by p-matt

Where did the Rigon to Rapax rumour come from? Sounds like a very good match up!

This week's Autosport reported that he's "among the drivers scrambling to secure a deal" with them for the main series. Would like to see him in a top GP2 seat.

[Mekola]

Rumour has it that Guerrieri received an offer to do GP2, but it wasn't cleared where. Rapax? SuperNova? Ocean?

[skells22]

I am a bit cross for next weeks GP2 Asia times on Euro sport. 11.00pm on next Friday and 9.45pm for the next Saturday race.

[JamesRamone]

Its live on British Eurosport tomorrow