Is GP2 now more highly regarded?

[Mikeall]

Well Glock is a BMW test driver, Nakajima is a Williams test driver, di Grassi probably will be a Renault test driver and Fillippi will be a Ferrari test driver. The rest are either too experienced or need another season before standing out.

[FIA]

I love GP2, drivers like Rosberg, Kovalainen, Speed, and (Of Course) Hamilton, have been promoted. Old F1 drivers like Bruni, Pizzonia and Pantano, have been involed. Also unknown drivers like Karajainen, Niemela and Martinez, are ahowing potential.

In all it makes a great Racing Catergory, very exciting!

[Osella]

A quick look at the F3000 champions:

1985 - Christian Danner - Raced DTM/ITC with Alfa Romeo, and Indycars in early 90's
1986 - Ivan Capelli - F1 career fizzled out in '93 (with Jordan..), nowadays occasional GT outings
1987 - Stefan Modena - F1 Career fizzled out after '92 (with Jordan..) then went to Indycars, then DTM/ITC with Alfa Romeo, then ITCC/ETCC with Alfa until 2001ish
1988 - Roberto Moreno - Went to Indycars, then back to F1, where his career fizzled out in '91 (with Jordan..) then back to Indycars, then F1 again with Forti Corse in '95, then back to Indy/CART where he was 'supersub' from 2001-2005, now an irregualr CART tester
1989 - Jean Alesi - F1 until 2001 when hsi career fizzled out (with Jordan..) then DTM until last year, nowadays in SPEEDCAR.
1990 - Erik Comas - F1 until '95 where Larrousse closed down pre-season, tested for DAMS F1 then raced in and won JGTC title twice. JGTC until 2004/5, nowadays helping his son in FBMW UK.
1991 - Christian Fittipaldi - F1 until '95 with Arrows, then CART with Newman/Haas, then NASCAR Busch series until 2003, with occasional Cup series starts, raced Brazilian stock cars, then Daytona Prototypes and for 2008 is racing in the ALMS for AGR Acura.
1992 - Luca Badoer - in F1 93/96/97 99 when his career fizzled out (with Minardi..) since has been a longterm Ferrari F1 test driver.
1993 - Oliver Panis - F1 win in 1995, in F1 until 2002 with BAR, including a stint as a highly-regarded test driver. Then sporadically raced in French GT's as well as fulfilling the Martin Brundle role on French TV.
1994 - Jean-Christophe Boullion - F1 '95 until '97 (with Sauber), then raced for Renault in BTCC in '99, nowadays a sportscar star in Le Mans/LMS races for Pescarolo having raced in the ISRS in the late 90's
1995 - Vincenzo Sospiri - Raced in Indycar briefly in mid 90's, then ISRS in Ferrari 333SP, won the championship twice and a Le Mans regular. Also raced sporadically ALMS/FIA GT's with Ferrari, Semi-retired due to long-term back injuries from ISRS sportscar racing. Also runs the Euronova team in partnership with David Sears/Supernova.
1996 - Jorg Muller - Le Mans racer with BMW, BMW test driver in 1999 using Williams-BMW test mule chassis, almost win Le Mans and ALMS in late 90's/early 2000's, subsequently ETCC/WTCC racer with Schnitzer BMW.
1997 - Ricardo Zonta - Works Mercedes sportscar racer until sacking after '99 Le Mans debacle (along with Mark Webber) F1 career with BAR, since been an F1 test driver and sporadic sportscar racer.
1998 - Juan Pablo Montoya - CART champion in 1999, runner up in 2000, F1 until 2006 with McLaren, then switched to NASCAR, winning Rookie of the year in 2007.
1999 - Nick Heidfeld - F1 with Prost/Sauber/Jordan/BMW until present
2000 - Bruno Junqueira - CART with Ganassi/Newman Haas/Dale Coyne until present.
2001 - Justin Wilson - Brief F1 stint with Jaguar, followed by CART championship until present.
2002 - Sebastian Bourdais - CART until present, winning four consecutive championships 2004-2007, F1 bound 'in '08.
2003 - Bjorn Wirdheim - Jaguar test driver for 2 years, raced in FNippon/JGTC and CART, subsequently in limbo at present
2004 - Vitantonio Liuzzi - F1 until 2007 with Red Bull/Torro Rosso, currently seeking F1 employment.

Not a bad list of talent, although there are a couple of "where are they now's"

So apart from Modena, Wirdheim and Capelli, all are accounted for and are either now retired or still (mostly) competitively racing

[Nikki Katz]

I think there's only so many years that F1 can take a handful of GP2 drivers entering the field. GP2's been fun to watch this year, but there's been some erratic driving. I don't even know who's going to be in GP2 next year, but unless the championship's won by someone like Senna I think that the winner would have trouble jumping straight into an F1 seat.
As shown by the list, there have been a number of F3000 successes in F1, but many more didn't really make an impression (Boullion) or didn't arrive at all (Muller, Sospiri other than the Lola attempt).
Just so long as it doesn't turn into the final couple of years of F3000. What did happen to Wirdheim? Last I heard he was doing not too well in Formula Nippon, which isn't exactly a highly regarded series.

[Osella]

Are you kidding?!? Nippon is generally held pretty highly, Michael and Ralf Schumacher raced in it, as did Irvine, Frentzen, Takagi etc... Okay that was a few years ago, but when you look at the drivers that have passed through it recently and there is a lof of talent, it's only really in the last 2 years that it has slowed a bit.

As for Wirdheim, I think he is looking towards Champ Car for next year again, but is currently out of a deal.

[Osella]

It is also worth looking at the context of where these drivers go, exaxctly...
Those who made it to F1; Danner, Capelli, Modena, Panis, Bouillon, Sospiri, Rosset, Heidfeld, Zonta, Badoer, Fittipaldi, Hill, Comas, Alesi, Moreno and so many more all made it to F1 with smaller teams, and excepting Heidfeld and Zonta, they made it when F1 had 32 or so cars!!!

This is the problem, there's nowhere for them to go. Teams these days are locked-in, and so unwilling to take too much of a risk, hence why drivers like Wirdheim and Bourdais miss out, and drivers like Wilson are swiftly cast out. If F1 still had those 'embarrassing' teams, then we could see drives like Alesi on 1990, or Wendlinger in 1993, or Capelli in 1989/1990 again. Okay, we get the odd performance once in a blue moon, but just look at guys like Fittipaldi in F1, several 4th places with teams like Minardi and Footwork!! Okay these days that's more like the occasional 8th place given the reliability of the top teams, but to finish 4th in a 30-car field in a Minardi is pretty special, and it's a shame we cannot see that sort of performance any more given the restrictive nature of the 12-team rule and entry bond these days...