What is Asian about GP2Asia ?

[truefan72]

so here are the drivers and positions after Abu Dhabi Qualy

Pos Driver Team Time Gap
1. Charles Pic Arden 1m52.497s
2. Oliver Turvey iSport 1m52.517s + 0.020s
3. Davide Valsecchi iSport 1m52.603s + 0.106s
4. Jules Bianchi ART 1m52.842s + 0.345s
5. Alexander Rossi Meritus 1m52.861s + 0.364s
6. Javier Villa Arden 1m52.979s + 0.482s
7. Sam Bird ART 1m53.003s + 0.506s
8. Edoardo Piscopo DAMS 1m53.086s + 0.589s
9. Giacomo Ricci DPR 1m53.134s + 0.637s
10. Christian Vietoris DAMS 1m53.183s + 0.686s
11. Sergio Perez Addax 1m53.407s + 0.910s
12. Daniel Zampieri Rapax 1m53.491s + 0.994s
13. Giedo van der Garde Addax 1m53.509s + 1.012s
14. Fabio Leimer Ocean 1m53.611s + 1.114s
15. Josef Kral Super Nova 1m53.685s + 1.188s
16. Vladimir Arabadzhiev Rapax 1m53.687s + 1.190s
17. Dani Clos Trident 1m53.982s + 1.485s
18. Max Chilton Ocean 1m54.036s + 1.539s
19. Michael Herck DPR 1m54.074s + 1.577s
20. Luca Filippi Meritus 1m54.121s + 1.624s
21. Marcus Ericsson Super Nova 1m54.723s + 2.226s
22. Plamen Kralev Trident 1m58.274s + 5.777s
23. Will Bratt Coloni 2m02.517s + 10.020s
24. Alberto Valerio Coloni


Not one Asian driver in the bunch, so why don';t they just combine the GP2Asia and GP2 into one longer series and drop that Asia moniker from the name since clearly non of the teams or the series is interested in developing Asian drivers. I find it a bit sad that there doesn't seem to be any interest in signing Asian drivers to this series, and I dare say outside of one or two circuits,the fans will have nothing to cheer for or compel them to watch.

It would have been nice to see even 1 or 2 in a 24 car field from an asian country. Oh well...

[Mekola]

Well, at the end of 2010 season, GP2 Series will have its round at Yas Marina in November. Rumour has it that the two series would combine, but nothing is confirmed yet...

[patnicholls]

GP2 Asia was intended to get more Asian drivers joining the series, and indeed a lot of teams ran the first couple of seasons with at least one Asian driver aboard. That seems to have petered out a bit with the downturn etc.

Mind you, the Asia series uses the old cars which have actually produced better racing than the newer chassis used in the main series...

[truefan72]

GP2 Asia was intended to get more Asian drivers joining the series, and indeed a lot of teams ran the first couple of seasons with at least one Asian driver aboard. That seems to have petered out a bit with the downturn etc.

Mind you, the Asia series uses the old cars which have actually produced better racing than the newer chassis used in the main series...

yep