During a brief search for info on American driver Conor Daly whilst looking into GP3 I thought the guy, and the sheer amount of competitions he’s been doing of late would be worth a thread to himself so here I am writing it.
Conor Daly is the 21 year old son of former F1 and Indy Car driver Derek Daly. Derek was Irish born but after his F1 career came to an end in 1982 (quite a successful year for Williams by his standards) he switched over to the Indy Car’s in America and raced there until 1989 with the occasional good result. It was after his career ended in 1991 that his boy Conor was born, in Indianapolis of all places. The apple never falls too far from the tree and Conor has followed in his father’s footsteps and gone into racing and is showing some real potential.
In 2010 Conor Daly won the Star Mazda Championship, pretty much dominating the thing with 7 wins from 13 and 9 poles. The following season he raced 5 races in Indy Lights (including a win) but, probably on the advice of his father, went against the traditional US path and made the switch over to europe to drive for Carlin in the GP3 series. He was 19 at the time and only notched up 10 points from 16 races but enough potential was seen in him to gain a seat with Lotus GP for the 2012 season. He did not disappoint and grabbed his first GP3 win in the sprint race at Barcelona. He scored 4 other podiums as the season went on was invited to do a straight line test for Force India F1 team.
Having started to build a reputation for himself Daly decided to keep busy during the offseason by going over to India to take part in the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 series which ran from October to Feb over 10 races. He took the title by 5 points and looked mightily impressive crossing back over to America part way through the series to test Indy Cars before returning to take the title. As this series finished Daly them made his way to Malaysia to drive the first round of the GP2 Series for new GP2 team Hilmer Motorsport giving them their first ever points in the series when he scored a 7th place finish in the sprint race. Daly then announced he would be competing in another full season of GP3 with ART Grand Prix and was given the number 1 car as ART are the reigning champions. Daly took part in the first round of GP3 this weekend at Barcelona scoring a 3rd in the feature race and a 5th in the sprint race. After the sprint race finished on Sunday morning he had a race to get to the airport and just about made a plane back to the states (really only just, apparently he traveled in his race overalls and his luggage didn’t make the plane) where he’ll begin practice sessions to take part in the Indy 500 for A.J. Foyt Racing who are the team Indy championship leader Takuma Sato is currently driving for and the team Daly tested for(and impressed) in December.
After he does Indy he’ll then fly back to Europe and race the rest of the season with ART in GP3 and there are also rumors he may be named as Force India reserve driver and get some Friday practice sessions for them after the GP3 series ends. Don’t know about you but I’m tired just writing about all of that! Would not be shocked to hear he was jumping in for Le Mans too at this rate.
In reading all of this I wondered if young Daly has hit on the best way for a young driver to develop himself. He’s driving everywhere and everything and is certainly building himself a reputation. Should more young drivers take this attitude or is Daly in a unique position because he has a father who straddles the U.S and the European scene? Also interested to hear our American posters (KekeTheKing, Westy @Siffet_Fan) think on Daly and whether they think that if he did choose F1 (it might be he goes for Indy) whether he would up the interest of the American viewer or would they still see him as a European?
Just to end with Daly is probably most famous at the moment for this crash at Monaco in the GP3 last year. I wonder if thats why they aren’t having GP3 at the principality this season!
Conor Daly is the 21 year old son of former F1 and Indy Car driver Derek Daly. Derek was Irish born but after his F1 career came to an end in 1982 (quite a successful year for Williams by his standards) he switched over to the Indy Car’s in America and raced there until 1989 with the occasional good result. It was after his career ended in 1991 that his boy Conor was born, in Indianapolis of all places. The apple never falls too far from the tree and Conor has followed in his father’s footsteps and gone into racing and is showing some real potential.
In 2010 Conor Daly won the Star Mazda Championship, pretty much dominating the thing with 7 wins from 13 and 9 poles. The following season he raced 5 races in Indy Lights (including a win) but, probably on the advice of his father, went against the traditional US path and made the switch over to europe to drive for Carlin in the GP3 series. He was 19 at the time and only notched up 10 points from 16 races but enough potential was seen in him to gain a seat with Lotus GP for the 2012 season. He did not disappoint and grabbed his first GP3 win in the sprint race at Barcelona. He scored 4 other podiums as the season went on was invited to do a straight line test for Force India F1 team.
Having started to build a reputation for himself Daly decided to keep busy during the offseason by going over to India to take part in the MRF Challenge Formula 2000 series which ran from October to Feb over 10 races. He took the title by 5 points and looked mightily impressive crossing back over to America part way through the series to test Indy Cars before returning to take the title. As this series finished Daly them made his way to Malaysia to drive the first round of the GP2 Series for new GP2 team Hilmer Motorsport giving them their first ever points in the series when he scored a 7th place finish in the sprint race. Daly then announced he would be competing in another full season of GP3 with ART Grand Prix and was given the number 1 car as ART are the reigning champions. Daly took part in the first round of GP3 this weekend at Barcelona scoring a 3rd in the feature race and a 5th in the sprint race. After the sprint race finished on Sunday morning he had a race to get to the airport and just about made a plane back to the states (really only just, apparently he traveled in his race overalls and his luggage didn’t make the plane) where he’ll begin practice sessions to take part in the Indy 500 for A.J. Foyt Racing who are the team Indy championship leader Takuma Sato is currently driving for and the team Daly tested for(and impressed) in December.
After he does Indy he’ll then fly back to Europe and race the rest of the season with ART in GP3 and there are also rumors he may be named as Force India reserve driver and get some Friday practice sessions for them after the GP3 series ends. Don’t know about you but I’m tired just writing about all of that! Would not be shocked to hear he was jumping in for Le Mans too at this rate.
In reading all of this I wondered if young Daly has hit on the best way for a young driver to develop himself. He’s driving everywhere and everything and is certainly building himself a reputation. Should more young drivers take this attitude or is Daly in a unique position because he has a father who straddles the U.S and the European scene? Also interested to hear our American posters (KekeTheKing, Westy @Siffet_Fan) think on Daly and whether they think that if he did choose F1 (it might be he goes for Indy) whether he would up the interest of the American viewer or would they still see him as a European?
Just to end with Daly is probably most famous at the moment for this crash at Monaco in the GP3 last year. I wonder if thats why they aren’t having GP3 at the principality this season!
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