GP2 to F1

RasputinLives

No passing through my dirty air please
Contributor
After Romain Grosjean became the 8th GP2 graduate to score a podium in F1 I decided to take a quick look at how he was comparing to other GP2 boys on their debuts in F1. There are no prizes for guessing who tops the list but here is a list of how each GP2 graduates rookie season stands up against the others.

1st - Lewis Hamilton (mcl) 109 points, 12 podiums, 4 wins *
2nd - Kamui Kobayashi (sau) 32 points
3rd - Heikki Kovalainen (ren) 30 points, 1 podium*
4th - Vitaly Petrov (ren) 27 points
5th - Timo Glock (toy) 25 points, 1 podium*
6th - Romain Grosjean (Lot) 23 points, 1 podium
7th - Nico Hulkenberg (Wil) 22 points
8th - Nelson Piquet Jr (ren) 19 points, 1 podium *
9th - Sergio Perez (sau) 14 points
10th Sebastian Buemi (tor) 6 points
11th Nico Rosberg (Wil) 4 points
12th Pastor Maldonado (Wil) 1 point
=13th Bruno Senna (HRT)
Narim Chandhock (HRT)
Lucas Di Grassi (VIR)
Jerome D'ambrosio (VIR)
Charles Pic (Mar) = 0 points

*= old points scoring system

So just as its clear at the top that Lewis Hamilton is by far the most succesful graduate its also clear that Timo and Heiki given the benifit of the new scoring system would have been head and shoulders above the others in this table and that whilst Grosjean may have equalled them in getting a podium in his rookie year he should be reminded that so did Nelson Piquet Jr.

I know a lot of this is all relative to what drive you are lucky enough to land in your first year but I think you have to give Romain creidt for already having out scored the very highly rated Nico Hulkenbergs rookie score already after 4 races. He's also only 5v points off Petrov's first year total and before you say the difference is the car on that one I'll remind you Robert Kubica scored 132 points in the same car as Petrov did that season so mabye sometimes its what you do with it.

The most surprising stat for me in there is Kobayashi out stripping Perez by 32 points to 14 both with debut years in the Sauber. Given all the praise Perez is getting its worth remembering.

As for Grosjean if he keeps this up he could become the second most succesful GP2 rookie of all time. Having said that though on looking at the list I was very dissapointed in it to be honest. Only 3 Grand Prix winners and only 1 who's ever been in a title hunt. If you look at most of thse names you see a bunch of drivers who showed potential at one point and then sort of petered out or who are fighting to show us they still are the superstar they were made out to be. So heres a question for you is GP2 overhyping young drivers and pushing the teams to throw them into F1 too early?
 
A good question, the key to promotion to F1 is always going to have a great big $ shaped fob attached to it though. If it were clear that a good season in one GP2 team's car boosted you into a linked F1 team then I think your overhyping could be measured, but if you were a GP2 driver or their investor (i.e. you've sponsored their early days with a hope of a later return on that investment) you'd welcome overhype if it got you into a Formula 1 car. So, overhype? No. Enough hype to get to their goal? Yes. A satisfactory method to ensure the best drivers get to the pinnacle of motorsport? Check out the above list and decide.
 
I know a lot of this is all relative to what drive you are lucky enough to land in your first year but I think you have to give Romain creidt for already having out scored the very highly rated Nico Hulkenbergs rookie score already after 4 races.

Hm...more F1 experience, in a much better car, and he really should have outscored Hulkenberg one or two races ago, instead binned it twice.

Can't say it's surprising he's second in the list as comparing him to all those behind him he's been in a much better car, the only driver that you could maybe just compare to is Petrov.

But then Kubica was capatlising on several of the top 6 tripping over each other and several retirements, Petrov being somewhat of a pay driver back then, and the fact he has experience in F1 compared to Petrov who didn't when he first started.

He's a great talent though, don't get me wrong, but I think you are overhyping him a bit.
 
The Problem for me is that in GP2 your not allowed to go back and defend your crown. I believe had Nico Rosberg been given the chance to defend his crown in GP2 we might have seen him gain more experience in that Race series and him finding himself with more F1 victories than he has now.

IMHO, i think some of the GP2 gradutes might not be ready but are given drives because 1) they'll happily want to be in F1 over GP2 and 2) The teams will hire anyone who is like to bring the most money with them.
 
To be fair to everyone else, RasputinLives, the method by which NP Jr. took his podium is not open any longer. Like we say, Grosjean should be 2nd in that list by the end of the year.

GP2 will be better evaluated when the dregs of the old system - Button, Webber, Alonso, Schumacher and Raikkonen - aren't in F1 taking the other available points, wins and podium places.

Notwithstanding Vettel is post-2005, and not GP2. Any di Resta success would also be chalked up in the debit column.
 
GP2 has produced, and is producing, more quality drivers than the previous series, Formula 3000, did. Of that I have no doubt at all.

I think the problem may not be that those drivers are being pushed into F1 too early; rather, too late. A lot of the very best drivers are spotted early and moved straight from Formula 3 to F1. These days there are good intermediate series such as Renault 3.5 and AutoGP as well. A few drivers on that list clocked up a lot of seasons of GP2 before they won the championship, or battled for it, and (I would argue) proved that more that they had learned 'how to solve' GP2 than proved themselves as being quality drivers per se. The cream doesn't always rise to the top, but what cream there is, tends to rise quickly.
 
Should convert all the points into the old system or vice versa. Although Hamilton had a championship challenging car he still had a spectacular season and is miles ahead of everyone else even without the 2010 point system. Heikki's rookie season was actually rather impressive as well, especially when that Renault seemed worse than Petrov's and he still outscored him with the old points system.
 
Hm...more F1 experience, in a much better car, and he really should have outscored Hulkenberg one or two races ago, instead binned it twice.

True but my point is that I've never heard anyone rave about Grosjean being the next multi-world champion and the next Michael Schumacher before he came in this year, in fact the general opinon seemed to be "What have they got him in for?", yet you can already conclude that Grosjean has grabbed his oppotunity more than Hulkenberg grabbed his.

As for overhyping, Having qualified in the top 10 for all 4 races, leading his world champion team-mate 3-1 in quali and sitting a nice happy 8th in the world championship maybe the boy deserves a bit of praise eh?
 
Grosjean was racing single seaters similar to F1 cars, Raikkonen wasn't, seen how much it hampered Schumacher, I think Raikkonen's doing a great job.
 
Don't feel stupid Mephistopheles

and Sly no one is saying Kimi is doing a bad job just that they're both doing a good job. As for the thing about single seaters, I take your point but Kimi and Schumie are different cases as Schumie retired completely and wasn't in competitive motorsport and therefore didn't keep his eye in.

As for Grosjean racing cars 'similar to F1' personally I think taking a step up is harder than going back to something you've done for years but I might be wrong.
 
Must teams felt that because of Giorgio's age he wasn't worth taking the risk on. But saying that he's probably much more happier doing whatever it is he's doing now.
 
well he's not doing a lot after a quick search of the internet. He stood in for Justin Wilson for 2 IndyCar races last year

check this blog written about him

http://willthef1journo.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/giorgio-pantano-and-why-he-deserves-his-shot/

Alonso called him invincible? my oh my! That blog makes him sound like a lost champion of champions so lets just remind ourselves that whilst he was super dominant in carts he had a season in F1 in 2004 and 13th was the highest he ever placed. He had 3 years in F3000 and another 3 years in GP2 before he finally won the title losing out to the likes of Justin Wilson, Sebastian Bourdais, Bjorn Wirdheim(?), Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock. He has also had 5 races in Indycar and whilst he has one 4th place to his name after thta he's barely finished in the top 20!
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again - being speedy in the lower formulae is not guarantee of pace in F1. Jonathan Palmer and Brian Henton both won the F2 title but were pants in an F1 car.
 
Back
Top Bottom