Getting a US driver in GP2 Asia

[Placid]

Would there be a possibilty to get that young US driver in F1 by
competing in the GP2 Asia Series?

[MikeD]

Would there be a possibilty to get that young US driver in F1 by
competing in the GP2 Asia Series?

I work as a journalist in GP2, and to be honest then most of the teams are using GP2 Asia to test drivers for the main series. It wasn't a big problem last year, but this year it was very obvious.

I am also starting to have doubts if GP2 Asia will continue this year, because the purpose of the series was to generate asian talent, and despite the fact that we got a Japanese champion in Kamui Kobayashi, then he has little chance of making it into F1 simply because he isn't talented enough.

Originally it was also intended that there would be a GP2 America series going all the way from Canada to Argentina, but it never materialised.

So to answer your question, then GP2 Asia is NOT the right stepping stone to F1. You have to do really well and show true talent in the GP2 main series to get a seat in F1.

[Nikki Katz]

I work as a journalist in GP2, and to be honest then most of the teams are using GP2 Asia to test drivers for the main series. It wasn't a big problem last year, but this year it was very obvious.

I am also starting to have doubts if GP2 Asia will continue this year, because the purpose of the series was to generate asian talent, and despite the fact that we got a Japanese champion in Kamui Kobayashi, then he has little chance of making it into F1 simply because he isn't talented enough.

Originally it was also intended that there would be a GP2 America series going all the way from Canada to Argentina, but it never materialised.

So to answer your question, then GP2 Asia is NOT the right stepping stone to F1. You have to do really well and show true talent in the GP2 main series to get a seat in F1.
I managed to watch a feed of the Indy 500 on the internet, where in the ad break they announced that the next event in GP2 Asia was Turkey, seemingly following on from Monaco. I think that something's got lost in the translation from English to, erm, English in America, and GP2 Asia per the broadcasters seems to mean the whole thing.

Oh, Speed was in GP2 in its first year wasn't he? He actually did well (finished 3rd I think, but miles behind Kovalainen in 2nd) and wound up in F1 the following year. But the whole point of Toro Rosso was to test out several young drivers for the main team, and the Red Bull young driver program also had a tendency to be rather quick to replace drivers or shift them into minor series.

But basically if another American driver wanted to get into F1 ignoring the USF1 effect then they'd really need to get a drive in the GP2 main series, or another reasonably good feeder series (WSR?). NASCAR doesn't hold much relevance to F1 and the IRL would need to build up its' reputation; it's probably still too oval based at the moment too. And then getting into F1 is far from a certainty - only a few GP2 drivers have so far made it, and most of those were the championship contenders.

I hope that GP2 Asia does come back, it's pretty much the only thing on in the winter, and some of the drivers in the series are so bad it's funny.

[MikeD]

News in the GP2 paddock is that Abu Dhabi will indeed be the opening race in the 2009/10 GP2 Asia championship. There will be 6 rounds and all of them will be in the Middle East to try and save costs of going to the expensive rounds in e.g. China & Malaysia.

GP2 Asia Series 2009/10
October 23-24 - Abu Dhabi (test)
October 31-November 1 - Abu Dhabi (F1 support)
TBC - Qatar (maybe 2 rounds)
Februrary 5-6 - Abu Dhabi
February 26-27 - Bahrain
TBA - Bahrain (F1 support)


Personally I don't like the idea of all the races to be in the middle east (it hardly fits the Asia name of the series). Suzuka, Singapore and Malaysia should be a part of GP2 Asia IMHO.

Another news is that Meritus will join the GP2 main series in 2011, but since the grid is maximised by 26 cars it will have to buy into or overtake a slot from another team (*cough* *cough* DPR/Herck team).

[MikeD]

I hope that GP2 Asia does come back, it's pretty much the only thing on in the winter, and some of the drivers in the series are so bad it's funny.

I agree :) Some of them were actually so bad, that I was also shaking my head in disbelief. But the series cannot have a repeat of the 2008/09 season, then I think it will be closed down.