Valsecchi is GP2 Asia champion

[Mekola]

With todays win at Bahrein, Italian racer Davide Valsecchi clinched the GP2 Asia championship, when there are three races left. The Italian did a marvellous performance during this short season, finishing in points in all race, winning three of them, and being second in the other two.

Valsecchi had almost no opposition, only had some rivalry from his iSport teammate Oliver Turvey, who won a race, Christian Vietoris, other race winner. Also Luca Filippi did a quite good season, and wonderboy prospect Jules Bianchi didn't fulfil all that was expected from him.

With his new crown, Valsecchi heads as one of main favourites for the 2010 GP2 Main Series, alongside Euro F3 Champion Bianchi.

[52Paddy]

I just watched the Bahrain races. Valsecchi was unbelievable in race 1 to catch Villa at the end. In fact, Villa was disappointing in the closing stages, falling back to third. Also, Ricci deserves compliments for his race 1 form too - almost clinching 3rd at the end!

Charles Pic raced well in the second round to win. But I thought Rossi was way out of order with his 'shouldering' antics I can't remember who it was that he tried to basically shove off the track. But, in my opinion, that guy needs to learn some etiquette!

[Nikki Katz]

I just watched the Bahrain races. Valsecchi was unbelievable in race 1 to catch Villa at the end. In fact, Villa was disappointing in the closing stages, falling back to third. Also, Ricci deserves compliments for his race 1 form too - almost clinching 3rd at the end!

Charles Pic raced well in the second round to win. But I thought Rossi was way out of order with his 'shouldering' antics I can't remember who it was that he tried to basically shove off the track. But, in my opinion, that guy needs to learn some etiquette!

I totally agree with your point about Rossi - in the main GP2 series last year there were completely inexplicable penalties handed out seemingly randomly that really ruined the flow of the season. This year in the winter series it's been the complete opposite - there hasn't been a single penalty despite some frankly awful driving from a few drivers. Rossi might have been the worst offender in that race, but in previous rounds Fillipi and Herck have been let off for even worse moves that, if my memory is right, got them into the points.

[52Paddy]

This year in the winter series it's been the complete opposite - there hasn't been a single penalty despite some frankly awful driving from a few drivers. Rossi might have been the worst offender in that race, but in previous rounds Fillipi and Herck have been let off for even worse moves that, if my memory is right, got them into the points.

I was expecting somebody might say that. I haven't watched any of the opening rounds of the series so can't comment on them. I just judged Rossi's move in isolation. We'll see how the driving standards compare in the second half of the series.

[UltimateDanGTR]

Who else thinks we will be seeing Valsecchi in F1 in a couple of years?

I do, I predict him to be GP2 champion this year, and I believe he's got the potential to have a great career.

[jens]

In the past years GP2 Asia hasn't been a good indicator about how will the Main GP2 season pan out. It's also worth remembering that Valsecchi finished as high as 4th in 08/09 GP2 Asia before being nowhere in the main series. So I prefer to wait for the real season before predicting him to be a title contender and/or a future F1 driver. A year ago Kobayashi was talked up as one of the biggest title favourites.

I consider Bianchi as the best bet for an F1 career at the moment among the current GP2 racers with Perez being a wild card in this department. Besides them we have a lot of unproven drivers (Leimer, Ericsson, Pic, etc), who are likely to improve significantly with further experience. What Valsecchi currently has over these guys, including his team-mate Turvey, is experience. But in the long run this is likely to play against him, because the younger guys have simply more untapped potential. This is also why I expect Valsecchi to struggle in the main series more than he has seemed to be doing in Asia.

[MikeD]

I agree with jens on most of his post.

I have Bianchi as the clear favorite for the main series, with D'Ambrosio, Pérez & Valsecchi as outside bets.

I don't see any other driver having big chances for getting pole positions and feature-race wins (which are the ones that counts - both in F1 bosses eyes and regarding points).

The rest of the drivers are in my book not very good - and to those who think Turvey is the next big thing? - forget it. He lacks raw speed, even though he has an iSport car in GP2 Asia which is superior to all other cars.

[JRodrigues]

It's too bad Parente didn't get a drive in the Main Series. Watching him compete in these last 2 weekends with a team like Coloni and getting consistently in the top5 does give him a lot of credit.

[jens]

I have Bianchi as the clear favorite for the main series, with D'Ambrosio, Pérez & Valsecchi as outside bets.

I suspect DAMS is not good enough to enable d'Ambrosio to fight for the title. He has been in that team for two years in a row already.

[patnicholls]

Valsecchi looks to have taken a big step up with his move to iSport certainly, it should work out rather better for him in the main series than it has in the past (although I was surprised last year that he did nothing when he moved to Barwa Addax).

Aside from the obvious other contenders (Perez, Bianchi, Parente if he's back in, Turvey, van der Garde?, Pic) how about Giacomo Ricci's performance in the Asia series? Where did that come from?!? Nice to see DPR back up the front after a long time away from it.