So GP2 fans the 2014 season is just over 2 months away and its time to take a look over who and what we'll be seeing this year. As pointed out by our own sushifiesta, on thread over on the F1 forum, the GP2 cars will still be V8 engines and this year will be far closer to the speed of the F1 cars than in previous years meaning drivers have even more of a chance to show they should be in the main show of the meeting.
As usual the GP2 series will follow the F1 series around being split into a feature race on a Saturday and a reverse grid race on a Sunday. The GP2 will run on the same weekends as all the European rounds of F1 as well as the weekends in Bahrain, Russia and Abu Dhabi. That gives us 11 rounds and 22 races. No Malaysia or Sinagpore this year but GP2 will be taking on Austria and Russia for the first time.
The opening weekend is the 4-6th April at Bahrain but the first test is being held over the 11th, 12th and 13th March. The GP2 teams are always slow to announce their driver line up's due to them having to wait until F1 negotiations are over but we do have a good idea of a portion of the grid already with the current line up being as follows:
Russian Time - Car#1 - TBA and Car#2 TBA
Carlin - Car#3 Julian Leal and Car#4 TBA
Racing Engineering - Car#5 TBA and Car #6 TBA
DAMS - Car 7# Jolyon Palmer and Car 8# Stephane Richelme
ART Grand Prix - Car 9# Stoffel Vandoorne and Car 10# Takuya Izawa
Hilmer Motorsport - Car 11# Daniel Apt and Car 12# TBA
Rapax - Car 14# Simon Trummer and Car 15# TBA
Arden International - Car 16# Rene Binder and Car 17# Andre Negrao
EQ8 Caterham International - Car 18# Rio Haryanto and Car 19# Alexander Rossi
MP Motorsport - Car 20# TBA and Car 21# TBA
Trident Racing - Car 22# TBA and Car 23# TBA
Venezuela GP Lazarus - Car 24# TBA and Car 25# TBA
Campos Racing - Car 26# Arthur Pic and Car 27# TBA
So like I said there are still plenty of seats to fill the most important one's being for Russian Time and Racing Engineering as they are the teams I expect to challenge. Of the drivers we do have there is no doubt that momentum is with Jolyon Palmer and Alexander Rossi who came on strong at the end of last year and you'd have to list them as current favourites for the title if it wasn't for the introduction of Stoffel Vandoorne. Vandoorne switches over for the 3.5 world series so he can get on with his McLaren reserve driver role and is instantly one of the favourites to win the thing not just because of the form he showed last year but also because he jumped in a GP2 car for the first time at the end of last season and was nearly half a second faster than the rest of the field.
Other drivers who have made the switch from the World Series are Negrao and, the little brother of Charles, Arthur Pic although the switch from those pair appears to be more out of desperation at not doing well in the World Series over the last few years rather than a preference.
Experienced drivers who may surprise us this year are Leal and Richelme who have both shown themselves to have speed in the past and one of those could be the surprise men to step up similar to Leimer and Valsecchi.
The talent to come? Well there is plenty out there. Personally I'm hoping someone like Russian Time who don't ask a driver for a budget give Robin Frijns a full season and I'm also hoping for Tio Elinas to be picked up as well. Ex GP3 champion Mitch Evans should make a return to the series for a second year and if he does he would join the list of favourites. The ever consistent Felipe Nasr is also likely to join the line up where hopefully he can finally break his duck when it comes to GP2 wins. I'm also hoping that Connor Daly and Jack Harvey jump up from GP3 to be in this series as well but of course all this depends on budget.
Anyways will we all be watching this year and what are our hopes and expectations? We all know GP2 can be amateur hour sometimes and it is beginning to mean less and less as for the past 2 years the champions have not graduated to F1 but lets face it.....its never dull to watch!
As usual the GP2 series will follow the F1 series around being split into a feature race on a Saturday and a reverse grid race on a Sunday. The GP2 will run on the same weekends as all the European rounds of F1 as well as the weekends in Bahrain, Russia and Abu Dhabi. That gives us 11 rounds and 22 races. No Malaysia or Sinagpore this year but GP2 will be taking on Austria and Russia for the first time.
The opening weekend is the 4-6th April at Bahrain but the first test is being held over the 11th, 12th and 13th March. The GP2 teams are always slow to announce their driver line up's due to them having to wait until F1 negotiations are over but we do have a good idea of a portion of the grid already with the current line up being as follows:
Russian Time - Car#1 - TBA and Car#2 TBA
Carlin - Car#3 Julian Leal and Car#4 TBA
Racing Engineering - Car#5 TBA and Car #6 TBA
DAMS - Car 7# Jolyon Palmer and Car 8# Stephane Richelme
ART Grand Prix - Car 9# Stoffel Vandoorne and Car 10# Takuya Izawa
Hilmer Motorsport - Car 11# Daniel Apt and Car 12# TBA
Rapax - Car 14# Simon Trummer and Car 15# TBA
Arden International - Car 16# Rene Binder and Car 17# Andre Negrao
EQ8 Caterham International - Car 18# Rio Haryanto and Car 19# Alexander Rossi
MP Motorsport - Car 20# TBA and Car 21# TBA
Trident Racing - Car 22# TBA and Car 23# TBA
Venezuela GP Lazarus - Car 24# TBA and Car 25# TBA
Campos Racing - Car 26# Arthur Pic and Car 27# TBA
So like I said there are still plenty of seats to fill the most important one's being for Russian Time and Racing Engineering as they are the teams I expect to challenge. Of the drivers we do have there is no doubt that momentum is with Jolyon Palmer and Alexander Rossi who came on strong at the end of last year and you'd have to list them as current favourites for the title if it wasn't for the introduction of Stoffel Vandoorne. Vandoorne switches over for the 3.5 world series so he can get on with his McLaren reserve driver role and is instantly one of the favourites to win the thing not just because of the form he showed last year but also because he jumped in a GP2 car for the first time at the end of last season and was nearly half a second faster than the rest of the field.
Other drivers who have made the switch from the World Series are Negrao and, the little brother of Charles, Arthur Pic although the switch from those pair appears to be more out of desperation at not doing well in the World Series over the last few years rather than a preference.
Experienced drivers who may surprise us this year are Leal and Richelme who have both shown themselves to have speed in the past and one of those could be the surprise men to step up similar to Leimer and Valsecchi.
The talent to come? Well there is plenty out there. Personally I'm hoping someone like Russian Time who don't ask a driver for a budget give Robin Frijns a full season and I'm also hoping for Tio Elinas to be picked up as well. Ex GP3 champion Mitch Evans should make a return to the series for a second year and if he does he would join the list of favourites. The ever consistent Felipe Nasr is also likely to join the line up where hopefully he can finally break his duck when it comes to GP2 wins. I'm also hoping that Connor Daly and Jack Harvey jump up from GP3 to be in this series as well but of course all this depends on budget.
Anyways will we all be watching this year and what are our hopes and expectations? We all know GP2 can be amateur hour sometimes and it is beginning to mean less and less as for the past 2 years the champions have not graduated to F1 but lets face it.....its never dull to watch!
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