Who's looking forward to this season coming up next year? Should be fascinating with a bunch of new rules and hopefully few new drivers graduating from GP3 to GP2 this season. Well we should certainly have a fair bit of British interested in this series too. With James Calado already comfirmed as a Lotus ART driver after his superb GP3 season finishing runner-up in that championship he's been given the reward of a GP2 drive. With the likes of Sam Bird and Jolyon Palmer surely likely to find drives in GP2 aswell, it could be a good year for the Brits to win this championship. As 2011 GP2 winner Romain Grosjean under the rules can not returning to the racing series this year and claim his championship back. Here are the new rules for the new GP2 series from 2012: The series will adopt the points system used by Formula One for the feature race, with points awarded to the top ten drivers and twenty-five points on offer for victory. The points awarded in the sprint race will also be changed, with the winner receiving fifteen points and top eight drivers receiving points. The points awarded for pole position and the fastest lap of the race will also be doubled. Further changes mean that drivers must use two compounds of tyres over a race weekend, as is the case in Formula One. The Series will also be expanded and will see the GP2 series follow F1 to a few more fly away races, after GP2 Asia was given the axe in 2011. The GP2 Calendar for 2012 is yet to be confirmed. But when it is and when all the drivers have been confirmed i'll put a list on this thread.
Interesting interview with Sam Bird http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/64750.html talks about the Abu Dhabi test mostly but also about testing with 2 different GP2 teams. The "it looks like GP2 for me next year......or maybe not!" is interesting! Obviously Mr Bird has an iron in the fire for something else and waiting to see if it comes off. Will prob explain why he's not signed up for a GP2 team quicker than he has.
Razia could be racing a team Caterham car next year in GP2 i reckon.The team would be a good stepping stone for him getting a F1 drive seen as team Caterham are also in F1. Also Alexander Rossi could be confirmed at the team too.
Already confirmed for next season in GP2 Teams: Lotus ART - Calado and Guterriez - no seat left to take. I Sport International - Markus Ericsson Scuderia Coloni - Kevin Ceccon Still another 22 seats to be filled up!
Lewis Williamson won't be taking one of those 22 seats - he's been confirmed for a season in FRenault 3.5 next year with the Arden team. He will also, perhaps more importantly, join Helmut Marko's Red Bull Junior programme. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96630
Columbian Julian Leal to partner Stephane Richelmi at Trident so that only leaves 20 seats! http://en.espnf1.com/gp2/motorsport/story/66883.html
I think it's great news that GP3 will mirror the f1 series more - gives younger drivers a greater experience of f1-like weekends in fly-away races, etc. In fact, with so many younger drivers coming through, is it time to think about expanding F1?
Jolyon Palmer at iSport for 2012 http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2011/12_December/Jolyon-Palmer-joins-iSport-for-2012-season/
Confimed Drivers for 2012 BARWA ADDAX TEAM 1. - 2. - DAMS 3. - 4. - RACING ENGINEERING 5. - 6. - iSPORT INTERNATIONAL 7. Marcus Ericsson (SWE) 8. Jolyon Palmer (GBR) LOTUS ART 9. Esteban Gutiérrez (MEX) 10. James Calado (GBR) CATERHAM RACING 11. - 12. - SCUDERIA COLONI 14. Kevin Ceccon (ITA) 15. - TRIDENT RACING 16. Julián Leal (COL) 17. Stéphane Richelmi (MON) SUPER NOVA RACING 18. - 19. - RAPAX 20. - 21. - ARDEN INTERNATIONAL 22. - 23. - OCEAN RACING TECHNOLOGY 24. Nigel Melker (NED) 25. - CARLIN 26. - 27. -
Wow fantastic the grid is starting to fill up loads now. Can't wait for more drivers to be confirmed from now till the start of the season. Hopefully we'll get more Brits on the grid aswell this next year . Confirmed Calendar for next season: Malaysia - rounds 1+2 Bahrain - rounds 3+4 Bahrain - rounds 5+6 Spain - rounds 7+8 Monaco - rounds 9+10 Spain - rounds 11+12 Great Britian - rounds 13+14 Germany - rounds 15+16 Hungry - rounds 17+18 Belguim - rounds 19+20 Italy - rounds 21+22 Singapore - rounds 23+24 All bar the second Bahrain round follow the F1 circus around the world .
18 drivers yet to be confirmed . Really looking forward to seeing who else will be confirmed in seats. Still have a hope that Sammy Bird will be confirmed at a team as i really don't wanna see him going down the Di Resta route.
Cause GP2 wanted to go there twice. Bit confused as to why they've decided not to go to Abu Dhabi and do a round there, instead of another round in Bahrain.
Teams are taking their blooming mind deciding which drivers to announce i would have thought 2/3 of the grid would have been taken by now.
