GP2 & GP3 2013 Season

Skeeter · 26 Sep 2013 at 14:01

Indy500 said:
I've made no secret of my opinion that GP2 has been weak lately. McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari put their development drivers in FR3.5 and I expect more teams to follow suit.

GP2 seems to be in a bit of a self perpetuating spiral. Once drivers who won in GP2 stopped automaticaly progressing to F1, anyone being groomed for an F1 seat is being placed elsewhere (i.e. FR 3.5, like you said). This in turn means less F1 apprentices in GP2, which means even less progress to F1, and so on and so forth.

The problem is, it doesn't really matter if you win in GP2, don't win in GP2, or win in any other feeder series. If you don't have a big fat cheque your unlikely to get into F1 anyway.

The way GP2 should work is to produce drivers like Rosberg and Hamilton, who got into GP2 on merit, won, and progressed into F1. Filling the field with pay drivers or people who have just hung about for 4 years doesn't highlight the talent on the F1 stage like it should. I'm not saying all GP2 drivers are pants, but its definitely not the 26 best 2nd tier drivers in the world battling out for an F1 seat its sold as.

Guerrilla · 26 Sep 2013 at 15:18

It's a sad state of affairs

I remember a couple of years ago there was something I read about it costing in the region of £2million for a season in GP2 and I can only see that to have gone up.

Something is wrong with the system when potentially a driver could win the series then be out of a drive and have nothing to show for it, meanwhile someone could have spent £10million for 5 seasons in GP2 and have yet still more cash to get into F1.

Indy500 · 26 Sep 2013 at 18:27

Skeeter said:
GP2 seems to be in a bit of a self perpetuating spiral. Once drivers who won in GP2 stopped automaticaly progressing to F1, anyone being groomed for an F1 seat is being placed elsewhere (i.e. FR 3.5, like you said). This in turn means less F1 apprentices in GP2, which means even less progress to F1, and so on and so forth.

Hulkenberg won the 2009 title as a rookie, before the final rounds - I think that was the last time there was an impressive GP2 champion.

Skeeter said:
The problem is, it doesn't really matter if you win in GP2, don't win in GP2, or win in any other feeder series. If you don't have a big fat cheque your unlikely to get into F1 anyway.

Robert Wickens comes to mind, as soon as Red Bull withdrew their backing he had to settle for a DTM drive with Mercedes' junior team.

Skeeter said:
The way GP2 should work is to produce drivers like Rosberg and Hamilton, who got into GP2 on merit, won, and progressed into F1. Filling the field with pay drivers or people who have just hung about for 4 years doesn't highlight the talent on the F1 stage like it should. I'm not saying all GP2 drivers are pants, but its definitely not the 26 best 2nd tier drivers in the world battling out for an F1 seat its sold as.

The feeder series below GP2 are too expensive as well. A Formula 3 budget is in excess of £500,000. The equivalent level in the US, Pro Mazda, costs around £200,000-300,000 (and winning is a big deal, since the scholarship guarantees you a seat in the next series up). You could justify the premium by F3 -> F1, but that hasn't been true for several drivers. Jamie Green, Daniel Juncadella, Edoardo Mortara, and Roberto Merhi all come to mind (they are now in DTM). Conor Daly was one of the few Pro Mazda graduates to go to Europe, although it looks he's lost this year's GP3 title thanks to being rammed off at Monza.

Guerrilla · 27 Sep 2013 at 09:14

Thought this was quite interesting...

Quite a lot more expensive than that now and also not quite as straightforward.

Guerrilla · 27 Sep 2013 at 13:02

Russian Time to join GP3 grid in 2014... They have bought Bamboo Engineering's GP3 team.

Russian Time don't seem to be short of a bit of money, wonder if they could use the Russian link to end up teaming up with Marussia or Sauber?

Skeeter · 27 Sep 2013 at 13:15

As long as they use the money to fund teams, and not just buy seats for useless drivers.

Indy500 · 27 Sep 2013 at 20:26

If their plan is to help Russian drivers, then they should give Daniil Kvyat a seat in GP2. Much more promising than rich kid Sirotkin and only one year older.

http://www.driverdb.com/drivers/daniil-kvyat/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_GP3_Series_season#Drivers.27_championship

Guerrilla · 15 Oct 2013 at 08:35

The teams have been announced for next season...

The following teams entered 2014 GP2 Series*
Arden International GBR
ART Grand Prix FRA
Campos Racing ESP
Carlin GBR
DAMS FRA
EQ8 Caterham Racing MAS
Hilmer Motorsport GER
MP Motorsport NED
Racing Engineering ESP
Rapax ITA
RUSSIAN TIME RUS
Trident ITA
Venezuela GP Lazarus VEN

*in alphabetical order

Campos Racing are back in GP2 taking over from Barwa Addax.

Guerrilla · 18 Oct 2013 at 12:03

Dean Stoneman is to race for Koiranen in place of Aaro Vainio at the final race in Abu Dhabi in GP3.

Hope he goes well.

Indy500 · 18 Oct 2013 at 12:56

Guerrilla said:
Dean Stoneman is to race for Koiranen in place of Aaro Vainio at the final race in Abu Dhabi in GP3.

Hope he goes well.

Sounds like a second chance at single seater racing after winning the F2 championship didn't lead anywhere. Stoneman's had a few wins in the Porsche Carrera Cup this year.

Guerrilla · 18 Oct 2013 at 13:18

He had testicular cancer which put a stop to it last time unfortunately. He is certainly deserving of a second chance!

Indy500 · 18 Oct 2013 at 13:53

Guerrilla said:
He had testicular cancer which put a stop to it last time unfortunately. He is certainly deserving of a second chance!

Well that explains the low activity in 2012. Good luck to him

Guerrilla · 30 Oct 2013 at 10:24

Robert Cregan will be racing for Trident this weekend in GP3.

Indy500 · 30 Oct 2013 at 20:45

Guerrilla said:
Robert Cregan will be racing for Trident this weekend in GP3.

Obviously money-oriented, he scored 0 points in GP3 last year.

Guerrilla · 31 Oct 2013 at 14:16

Indy500 said:
Obviously money-oriented, he scored 0 points in GP3 last year.

Yea I would imagine so, unless teams are using it to weigh up driver/money packages for next season.

Alice Powell will be back in GP3 this weekend too driving for Bamboo Racing.

Indy500 · 31 Oct 2013 at 19:51

If she's replacing Carmen Jorda it'll be an upgrade of sorts, albeit from back of the pack to midfield.

Guerrilla · 1 Nov 2013 at 10:11

Indy500 said:
If she's replacing Carmen Jorda it'll be an upgrade of sorts, albeit from back of the pack to midfield.

Haha, but a downgrade in other ways

No she will be replacing Melville McKee I think.

Flibster · 1 Nov 2013 at 14:57

Collado got a 5 place grid penalty for forcing someone off track this morning.

At least they're now punishing this behaviour, but it rules him out of the championship.

Indy500 · 1 Nov 2013 at 18:37

Rossi and Bird on the front row for the GP2 feature race. Judging by the GP3 practice results, Arden and Carlin have a significantly better setup than the rest of the field.

Skeeter · 2 Nov 2013 at 08:20

I'm glad Bird stalled. If he wins the championship his chances of racing in F1 are over.

How screwed up is that!