ART: Filippi or Grosjean?

To be honest, despite his lunacy, I think it was a good weekend for Grosjean. During that race, when he wanted, he was a good 1 second a lap faster than Kobayashi. All weekend he's been head and shoulders faster than everyone else.

What GP2 needs is for him to make more stupid mistakes like today, otherwise the championship might be a race for second. As opposed to Filippi, who was simply rubbish.

Don't forget Filippi had tech problems in qualifying (gearbox I think, without checking) which left him near the back, and once you're down there in GP2 there's always potential for tangling with people. He did seem to have some good pace near the end and was catching up and overtaking people.

Second race he had an engine failure, which I don't think you can call him rubbish for having. Bearing in mind he was ahead of Valsecchi and behind Maldonado when it went.

Well, except for the fact that in race 1 he and Grosjean started relatively near to each other (11th to 14th), yet Grosjean made over twice as many places (including passing people Filippi was stuck against). Now, true Grosjean is not exactly an average driver, but he is the only one Filippi has to compare himself to.

Yeah true Grosjean did start close to Filippi. I just remember him looking very racey until contact (can't remember who with, think it was at that dreadful chicane) dropped him back in race one and then race two his engine went when he probably would have scored points, and finished ahead of his team mate ;)

I know what you mean about not being entirely convinced by Filippi as a top draw (e.g. Hamilton, Rosberg, Glock) GP2 driver, as he does sometimes go missing. Does have an almost Zuber like streak of bad luck at times too. But then I suppose you make your own luck.

08 will be a make or break season for him with regards any chance to step up to F1 I think, then again he may become Pantano MkII and stick around winning the odd couple of GP2 races a season for various teams in years to come.

Funnily enough, i'm not sure he's Giorgio's level as a driver.

Grosjean is the stand out driver by a country mile in that field this year. He looks the part - he's racey, he's quick and he's got a winning mentality. His move today was a bit daft but I'm sure he'll learn from that and come back next time out with something to prove. Grosjean reminds me very much of Lewis in GP2 - his attitude to racing I like, he never gives up and he's prepared to have a go when many others would just sit there and blame the dirty air.

Man, on the basis of this discussion, that leaves us with only one question: Who will he kick out of the F1 grid next year? :)

Jackman, made some valid points about Filippi's problems in the main thread. Having viewed the action again late last night I can see what he's saying.

I was erring a bit too much on the sweeping generalisation side which isn't good!

However let's see how the two match up against each other in Istanbul - could be the key pointers of the weekend. I.E. Will Grosjean really stamp his authority on the field, or will Filippi put all of his troubles behind him from Catalunya and make his title challenge stick?

Could be good!

So clearly Filippi had rubbish luck, but was he rubbish himself? I'm less convinced.

At the end of the day, the championship table will say.

And yes, I agree that Filippi is far more talented than his past weekend showed. I just don't think he's quite talented 'enough'.

I wonder if Filippi is feeling the pressure. He was my big title fave before the start of the season and he probably thought the same thing when he signed for ART.

But Grosjean's mix of speed and consistency (which I thought he'd take longer to show in all honesty) means all the attention is definitely on him. After his crappy Asia campaign, Filippi doesn't look so confident. Hopefully his weekend was mainly down to various issues, but he's got to catch up soon.

I've yet to come to a conclusion about Grosjean: certainly he has speed at circuits where he has already done a lot of miles, but so far he's looked ordinary when he's never been to a track before. Istanbul should be interesting in that respect.

Some posts taken from the main GP2 thread as it looks like a discussion worth having......

Some posts taken from the main GP2 thread as it looks like a discussion worth having......

Poll worth having possibly :)

Although that said, on my brief analysis of people's predictions for Barcelona, Grosjean significantly more popular.

But on the Filippi question; being beaten by Yoshimoto in GP2 Asia, then having a really bad weekend at Barcelona is definitely going to hurt his confidence. But surely he's got to be able to at least match his performances last year with Supernova? (Although I suspect Supernova, iSport, Piquet, Arden and ART are all extremely close in terms of speed. Difference being less than a tenth per lap say)

In my opinion Grosjean is probably the quicker driver of the two, although how he performs at the likes of Istanbul and Valencia will be interesting to see. With regards to Filippi, I would have previously said that he would have been the better driver, however, I has expected him to have a good sized margin over Yoshimoto in GP2 Asia, which failed to be the case.

I believe when we are talking about Filippi case, you cannot really mention The GP2 Asia , as his team (Meritus Racing) was unexperienced ... to not say anything else ...

Do not forget he won race 1 in Sentul , then has been disqualified due to team mistake

Filippi is definitly a good driver, i expect him to be a front runner in Istanbul and also be a Title contender

I love Yoshi more than most, but even I couldn't say that he beat Filippi in Asia: the Italian won one race (later disqualified because the team put Yoshi's tyres on his car), was nerfed out of a few more races, and was easily quicker than Yoshi in qualifying and the races in which he made more than a lap or two. Yoshi seemed to be on a cruise and collect at most of the races (understandable given it was his shop window to show what he can still do, but slightly disappointing for me in the lack of mongrel in his races) in comparison.

Will the Asia series discourage Filippi because of the results? I know him reasonably well, and I don't see if having much of an effect so far other than to make him angry at the pitfalls that befell him, which is probably a good thing.

On the other hand, Grosjean had things pretty easy: will that be good preparation for a brutal season in the main series? We'll see...

As Jackman said, I also didn't see Filippi suffering at the hands of Yoshimoto, perfomance wise in Asia. Like Senna to an extent, Luca suffered appalling misfortune which stunted his challenge to Roman and the others in Asia and perhaps we're not emphasising this point in evaluating how the two stack up against each other.

Turkey is clearly going to be a more useful barometer as to how the two compare but maybe still too early to see which of them is going to come out on top.

Certainly although I think the Frenchman is going to ultimately take the advantage, I think the two of them will be more closely matched than say Nico and Premat or Lewis and Premat were in '05 and '06.

My take so far is that Roman is out and out more aggressive, but Filippi is perhaps a more cunning driver. Again in contrast there were at least a couple of rounds in Asia where Luca was meteoric in the opening laps of a race......

We have a full season to see the results on all this... In papers, Grosjean is the favourite to shine but...

Yup. Filippi. Awesome.

Filippi had awful race. Of course he stalled, but then he was very unfair at the end, let Grosjean go easily but kept Zuber behind very long, destroying the battle for 2nd then.

Filippi had awful race. Of course he stalled, but then he was very unfair at the end, let Grosjean go easily but kept Zuber behind very long, destroying the battle for 2nd then.

I'm sure Romain will buy him a beer.

Filippi had awful race. Of course he stalled, but then he was very unfair at the end, let Grosjean go easily but kept Zuber behind very long, destroying the battle for 2nd then.
No he didn't: it was only a couple of fast corners, despite what Zuber said.

Well at Monaco, both ART drivers had very mixed weekends, but Grosjean still appeared to have the edge.

That's 6 races down and Filippi has not looked like the driver we saw last season. Can he recover any form or has he been 'negged' out of it already?

Maybe ART will promote Hulkenberg, who equally doesn't seem to be getting anywhere in F3 because the competition is so huge. He seems to be the fastest (or one of the fastest) but hasn't had much luck so far.

As for Filippi, I'm stunned at his start to the season. It really has been awful!

Well Euro F3's only just started (but then so has GP2) so Nico's got plenty of time left to put his challenge together. I would've thought Nico's in line a drive next season in their GP2 team, Filippi's surely got money invested for the whole season - he's bound to sort things out shortly?

So Filippi finally got fed up with ART and left - probably should have done that a bit earlier...

So yes, whatever the reasons for the split, his side of the fence or theirs it's probably for the best, but how much has this horrendous half season cost him in terms of his future chances?

Hopefully Filippi can recover from this. Though he was probably naive to think he'd get equal treatment at ART.

You have to laugh that Sakon has outqualified Luca by a single position. Yeah it's one session, but still...

I cant help but think Filippi -if he was still with ART- woulda record pretty much the same laptime Yamamoto did. Having said that Yamamoto's wallet is a tad bit thicker, it was just a wise move by the team.

There is a report on Italiaracing saying that ART did advantage Grosjean over Filippi. An exemple is the last race at Silverstone, when Filippi was starting from Pole , he was sent by his team with Dry set-up which obviously was not the right one for a completly wet track.It is reported also that some Engineers from ART left the team as well due to this " all for Grosjean"

Lets wait and see what Filippi will do with Arden, i am pretty sure he will get in top 10 today and do Top 5 tomorrow

There is a report on Italiaracing saying that ART did advantage Grosjean over Filippi. An exemple is the last race at Silverstone, when Filippi was starting from Pole , he was sent by his team with Dry set-up which obviously was not the right one for a completly wet track.It is reported also that some Engineers from ART left the team as well due to this " all for Grosjean"

Lets wait and see what Filippi will do with Arden, i am pretty sure he will get in top 10 today and do Top 5 tomorrow

Do you belive ART would compromise one of its drivers, they want to win with both cars 1,2 like any other team, Frédéric Vasseur is a professional and knows you dont win the championship with just one car. And to suggest anything else is prepostererous. Grosjean has an exceptional talent Fillipi is average.
Filippi should have stayed with Super Nova he had a great team who belived in him and one of the best engineers in Sean Thompson (who made him) His first mistake was not running GP2 Asia with Super Nova, When he was their first choice. He failed in GP2 Asia dismally, Super Nova found success, winning and podiums with Fairuz Fauzy. Fauzy (4th) finnishing in the championship higher than Senna when he was rated a complete outsider (Filippi rated as favorite). To move to Arden now will be the same story, his new team mate Sebastien Buemi is every bit as good a race driver as Romain Grosjean so when he fails again will he blame his new team of bias. I can't see any F1 team wanting to take a driver who flits from team to team to cover his own failures.

time will tell...

Well, if his engineers and mechanics leave the team along with him, it's clear. Btw, I've heard in his F3 days, that Grosjean's father Christian is one of Briatore's lawyers and that is partly the reason for his RDD status. Has anyone else heard that?

[quote=ivanalesi]Well, if his engineers and mechanics leave the team along with him, it's clear.

Do you know they have left the team or are you like others relying on an Italian web site for that information,(or disinformation) because I for one cannot see ART mechanics following Fillipi anywhere.

time will tell...

How much time does this guy need.

Classified 23rd not "top 10" ....................again.

ART top team, Arden top team, where next,

I wonder how the affore mentioned web site will put a spin on this result.

Do you know they have left the team or are you like others relying on an Italian web site for that information,(or disinformation) because I for one cannot see ART mechanics following Fillipi anywhere.
The story was actually broken by British site www.gpweek.com, not Italiaracing (who admitted in their story they were just repeating it).

The story was actually broken by British site www.gpweek.com (http://www.gpweek.com), not Italiaracing (who admitted in their story they were just repeating it).

If thats the case it only goes to show they should have checked out the ridiculous story first, rather than just repeat a story that obviously suited them.

Do you belive ART would compromise one of its drivers, they want to win with both cars 1,2 like any other team, Frédéric Vasseur is a professional and knows you dont win the championship with just one car. And to suggest anything else is prepostererous. Grosjean has an exceptional talent Fillipi is average.
Filippi should have stayed with Super Nova he had a great team who belived in him and one of the best engineers in Sean Thompson (who made him) His first mistake was not running GP2 Asia with Super Nova, When he was their first choice. He failed in GP2 Asia dismally, Super Nova found success, winning and podiums with Fairuz Fauzy. Fauzy (4th) finnishing in the championship higher than Senna when he was rated a complete outsider (Filippi rated as favorite). To move to Arden now will be the same story, his new team mate Sebastien Buemi is every bit as good a race driver as Romain Grosjean so when he fails again will he blame his new team of bias. I can't see any F1 team wanting to take a driver who flits from team to team to cover his own failures.

Filippi average? And where are you coming from on that basis? He didn't fail in GP2 Asia, look at the luck he had with new team Meritus. He won a race in the wet quite comfortably, but was stripped of his win because Meritus put Yoshimoto's tyres on by accident (not Luca's fault whatsoever). And that result obviously costed him 8th place on the grid and more points for Sunday's race, and a load of championship positions.

You say you can't see any F1 team wanting Filippi, yet you forget (or do not know) that he is in the Honda racing F1 programme, lapping 1 tenth of a second away from Button at Barcelona over the winter. Ok, Luca has had a poor year by his standards, how can you call him average though, looking at his history?! Look at the drivers he beat to 4th place last year.

Well, if his engineers and mechanics leave the team along with him, it's clear. Btw, I've heard in his F3 days, that Grosjean's father Christian is one of Briatore's lawyers and that is partly the reason for his RDD status. Has anyone else heard that?
Sounds like hearsay but could be I suppose... irrelevant nonetheless, unless you're infering that Grosjean's talent isn't deserving of a Renault Dev. drive. As far as ART are concerned, I find it hard to believe they'd pull somethng shady. Luca obviously didn't want to be 2008's Premat :laugh:

Kai, that's something I've heard in 2006, and sure it would help having your father advising Briatore to land you in RDD, even though he was in the FFSA team earlier than that, so Jean and .co should have seen something in him. It's all nothing more than speculation.

Filippi average? And where are you coming from on that basis? He didn't fail in GP2 Asia, look at the luck he had with new team Meritus. He won a race in the wet quite comfortably, but was stripped of his win because Meritus put Yoshimoto's tyres on by accident (not Luca's fault whatsoever). And that result obviously costed him 8th place on the grid and more points for Sunday's race, and a load of championship positions.

You say you can't see any F1 team wanting Filippi, yet you forget (or do not know) that he is in the Honda racing F1 programme, lapping 1 tenth of a second away from Button at Barcelona over the winter. Ok, Luca has had a poor year by his standards, how can you call him average though, looking at his history?! Look at the drivers he beat to 4th place last year.


How can you possibly say that in the GP2 Asia race in Sentul he suffered bad luck. He used his team mates "New" tyres, on a track that is notoriously heavy on tyres. That gave him a distinct advantage over the other drivers the stewards were correct in excluding him. That was not bad luck. To be a good driver you need to show good judgement as well as driving skills. His choice of team for GP2 Asia was bad judgement given their history in Asia, and that Super Nova wanted him as their lead driver. Turning his back on the team and engineer that made him look good in the previous season of GP2. That showed bad judgement also. To say he did not fail in GP2 Asia is beyond me he started favorite and finnished a lowly 17th with only 5 points to his name with a team that appeared to be very well funded.

On to this season you still don't think he is failing, He joined ART one of the top 3 teams probably the best team in GP2. His results dire, not bad luck again. Now he has swithched teams after it being suggested on this forum (from web sites) that ART discriminated against him what rubbish. After this weekends dismal performance with errors associated with rookies do you still insist he is not failing.

F1, what running has he done with Honda this year and what plans do they have for him. I'm not sure if he got some tours of Silverstone with the new Kinetic engine, he may have to give him the milage he paid for. He got the drive at Honda along with Mike Conway because of Super Nova's connections, the team he turned his back on more bad judgement. Motor racing is about now not past performances. If F1 drives were based on past performances Honda would bring Jacques Villeneuve back surely. If you think he has a future in F1 where do you think he could slot in and what usefulness can he bring to an F1 team.

If you don't think finnishing in 17th postion in GP2 Asia starting as favorite, and languishing at the bottom in 16th postion in the current championship having started with a top team a failure thats beyond me.

You criticized me for calling him an average driver after this weekends results he's hardly average.

AFAIK Filippi was engineered by Sean Thompson (brother of Peter Thompson, Team Meritus Owner) in GP2 Asia. It was the first year of Meritus Racing at this level of competition


I did not know thre was any connection between Super Nova and Honda, probably it does (has) never exist, if it was the case i guess Conway would still drive for Super Nova...

Just for your information Luca Filippi is managed by Vincenzo Sospiri

AFAIK Filippi was engineered by Sean Thompson (brother of Peter Thompson, Team Meritus Owner) in GP2 Asia. It was the first year of Meritus Racing at this level of competition


I did not know thre was any connection between Super Nova and Honda, probably it does (has) never exist, if it was the case i guess Conway would still drive for Super Nova...

Just for your information Luca Filippi is managed by Vincenzo Sospiri

I don't understand what point you are trying to make (Sean & Peter), and obviously you did not know, and yes I know Vince is the manager

We have a saying "The grass is always greener on the other side" racing drivers always put their poor performances down to others and look for "the grass on the other side" they should not let disinformation cloud the issues

in reference of that : " Turning his back on the team and engineer that made him look good in the previous season of GP2"

Filippi had the same race engineer at Super Nova and Meritus Racing

Anyway i agree with you that if Filippi does not make it with Arden , then there will be limited future for him in Motorsport

in reference of that : " Turning his back on the team and engineer that made him look good in the previous season of GP2"

Filippi had the same race engineer at Super Nova and Meritus Racing

Anyway i agree with you that if Filippi does not make it with Arden , then there will be limited future for him in Motorsport

Sean Thompson engineered him at Super Nova with sucess in 2007, but Sean engineered Christian Bakkerud in GP2 Asia, appart from the Malaysia round.

yes I agree his opptions will be limited

If GP2-F1 is still his aim I would do GP2 Asia back with Super Nova, or if not GP2/F1 go to A1 GP.......... Italy I am sure will put a good team in now the car is powered by Ferrari

How can you possibly say that in the GP2 Asia race in Sentul he suffered bad luck. He used his team mates "New" tyres, on a track that is notoriously heavy on tyres. That gave him a distinct advantage over the other drivers the stewards were correct in excluding him.

His team put the tyres on, he didn't puroposely use Hiroki's tyres, he was just pulling in for a pit-stop and that happened. That was a complete mistake by the team. 17th in GP2 Asia is just a statistic. He was with a new team and was quick in testing and the races, yet suffered bad luck. Just like Bruno Senna. You have to look at some of his performances on the day, not just a championship standing.

Of course I agree he is having a dismal season, no doubt about it. But you can't call him an average driver.

His team put the tyres on, he didn't puroposely use Hiroki's tyres, he was just pulling in for a pit-stop and that happened. That was a complete mistake by the team. 17th in GP2 Asia is just a statistic. He was with a new team and was quick in testing and the races, yet suffered bad luck. Just like Bruno Senna. You have to look at some of his performances on the day, not just a championship standing.

Of course I agree he is having a dismal season, no doubt about it. But you can't call him an average driver.

With regard to Sentul, In my opinion he would not have won the race (and he did not win the race) had he used his own worn tyres like all the other drivers had to. The reason all the race tyres were so bad is because they were all degraded in qualifying. The Sentul track was like no other track used to stage an international race meeting on, the cars were shredded let alone the tyres the cars were being armoured by using the metal hordings from track side. Mechanics hanging out the pit boards were being injured, some wearing helmuts so bad was the track. So to use new tyres gave him a distinct advantage. That is not bad luck. I know he had no control over what his team did in the pit stop, but they tried to gain an unfair advantage, thats not bad luck. Apart from Sentul his perfomances were dire his only point scoring race was the first race in Dubai finnishing 5th, his next best finnish was 11th & 12th and 5 DNF's. In his teams home race in Malaysia (where he and Meritus enjoyed 2 full days testing in a Renault V6 just prier to the race) he managed 2 DNF's. It was not bad luck. I saw all his performances unlike many and the results were not down to bad luck. I think to do an international racing series and come out with stats like that can only be called failure. If you don't think he failed in GP2 Asia you must think he was successful, on that reasoning that makes drivers like Enrique Bernoldi and Alex Yoong successful F1 drivers.

Why you insist he is any more than an average driver is beyond me.

Bad luck is what happened to Michael Herck today when Luca ran in to him at the start and ruined his race.

Filippi had exactly the same condition tyres coming to him as the ones that were marked for Yoshimoto, which is why the team got them mixed up.

And Herck nerfed Filippi today, which was pretty obvious from the replay.

F3 Rocks- I can see where you are coming from, Filippi is having a bad season which I have acknowledged.

To be honest, you keep lambasting me because I regard Filippi's history as a driver to watch (F3000 Italia champion with Fisi, GP2 winner ahead of people such as Glock, di Grassi, Pantano...who are they?) . You say motor racing is about now, not history. Yet you keep referring to GP2 Asia and how he managed a dismal 17th. Yes, it's a dismal championship standing. But no, that really does not portray Luca's driving ability, (as I'm sure everyone will agree). The Honda F1 team were impressed by his testing, and unimpressed by Zuber, who was testing in the same week.

And as Jackman points out, which was later established, Herck did indeed cause an avoidable accident. Luca did not run into him. Hercks right front side was a mess, as was Luca's left rear, which obviously suggests that Herck was pointing in the wrong direction after his dismal start, which is a trademark of his.

Hmm... I did think Filippi was slightly to blame for the Herck incident... like perhaps he should have used his mirrors... did look like he pulled out right into Herck's path to me.

Herck was in front of Filippi and stalled so the Italian went for the gap, and then Herck restarted again and plowed straight into Filippi: it was pretty clear. Bear in mind that it normally takes Herck 3 goes to get out of the pits: every driver knows that, so it's pretty obvious you'd go for a gap in front of him when Herck stalls, again.

So where does this Herck guy figure in the all time list of 'ordinary' (choosing my term carefully here...) F2/3000/GP2 drivers?

He must be near the bottom surely

Somewhere south of Tahinci.

Hmm... Tahinci salvaged some pride with a few decent performances in GP2 Asia. Apart from that, he would probably be below Herck.

Tahinci is under-rated: he was on for a podium in Turkey before he got nerfed off by Nakajima. He's nowhere near world class but he's way, way better than Herck has shown so far.

Sorry to keep this moving OT but would it be fair to say that Tahinci is sort of Gary Evans kinda stock at this level and Herck is like Nardozzi or Knycx somoeone like that?!! :)

Luca Filippi, had a very good qualifying session in Hungaroring today (21), with a 1m29.873 luckly he just managed to keep infront of Michael Herck (22) 1m30.021.......................... More bad luck!



Romain Grosjean (Pole) 1m27.782,................ more good luck?

i think nobody can disagree with you about that one.... i just hope for Fillipi that he will be able "someday" to show up his real pace.

Not bad Qualifying for Sakamoto by the way

i think nobody can disagree with you about that one.... i just hope for Fillipi that he will be able "someday" to show up his real pace.

Not bad Qualifying for Sakamoto by the way

Yes big improvement from free practice, could get in the points from there.

Luca Filippi, had a very good qualifying session in Hungaroring today (21), with a 1m29.873 luckly he just managed to keep infront of Michael Herck (22) 1m30.021.......................... More bad luck!
Romain Grosjean (Pole) 1m27.782,................ more good luck?

Filippi has proved in the past that he is quick, right now he has a bad moment. It can happen to anybody and your judgement is not fair.

N.B.: Herck is not as bad as he appears as well, first year GP2 racing in a heavily restructured team, him needing mileage, he cannot get quickly enough, not enough experience. Judge him in the second year. He had decent speed when testing with ART in F3 and Pons in World Series. His starting difficulties have to do with the setup of his clutch combined with his not yet perfectly healed accidented hand.
He is quicker than Tahinci.

Agreed with you bradrive, of course Herck is quicker than Tahinchi and Filippi is a gifted,talented and fast driver. Time will come.....

Filippi has proved in the past that he is quick, right now he has a bad moment. It can happen to anybody and your judgement is not fair.

N.B.: Herck is not as bad as he appears as well, first year GP2 racing in a heavily restructured team, him needing mileage, he cannot get quickly enough, not enough experience. Judge him in the second year. He had decent speed when testing with ART in F3 and Pons in World Series. His starting difficulties have to do with the setup of his clutch combined with his not yet perfectly healed accidented hand.
He is quicker than Tahinci.

You missunderstand me, I agree Michael is learning the hard way, I have not critised Micheal just used him to show Filippi's current postion in the GP2 field.But I think Michael is out of his depth in his GP2 1st season as he will be in his second.

I would like to ask Runshaw & Bradrive, what did you see in todays GP2 race to confirm your positive views of Fillipi?

He only managed 21st in quali, he never over took one single car, he was gifted his improvement on his starting position and still only managed 15th.

Pastor Maldonado started 26th and finnished 5th so the race provided opportunity to not only improve from the back of the grid but to gain some useful points. Fillipi was not good enough to follow Pastor into the points.

Whatever his results from now I think his season is over. I wonder what spin will be put on this latest dire result, who will be blamed. He can't blame Arden, Buemi finnished a credible 7th with a good chance of victory on Sunday, By racing.

I would like to ask Runshaw & Bradrive, what did you see in todays GP2 race to confirm your positive views of Fillipi?

I do not say that he did do a good race, I said that overall he is a quick driver and has proved it in the past and that he is passing a difficult moment.
It has happened to many sportsmen (see Roger Federer)

This difficult momnet now spans GP2 Asia through GP2 main he has raced with 2 of the top teams in GP2 main with dire results, his season is over already, his career is in ruins. F1 are not looking for under performers race in race out, F1 teams also dont like comments like the ones made about ART, thats the reason I joined this debate. What does the future hold for him now? unless he has very deep pockets not a lot I suspect.

What comments did he make about ART? "For me, I don’t want to spend any time thinking about what might have been: I am spending all of my time concentrating on what we can build together with Arden."

Yeah, I can see how that could upset people.

[quote=META4]There is a report on Italiaracing saying that ART did advantage Grosjean over Filippi. An exemple is the last race at Silverstone, when Filippi was starting from Pole , he was sent by his team with Dry set-up which obviously was not the right one for a completly wet track.It is reported also that some Engineers from ART left the team as well due to this " all for Grosjean"


Jackman,

These are the comments I am refering to, They appeared in an earlier post on this forum. (taken from 2 web sites) I have never suggested Fillipi himself gave the statement, but someone did and I would have a good guess as to who that person was.

And statements/spin like that do upset F1 people and the racing fraternity in general, especially when its ART being accused of compromising one driver for another. As I said in a previous post Frederic Vasseur, ART, is a complete professional.

ART must feel totally vindicated now with Fillipi's failures continuing.

So Filippi is to blame for what websites write now? Awesome.

I could tell you for a fact that he has never been quoted complaining about ART, and nor has he intimated any disapproval in his press releases: I know this because I know the guy. I can also tell you that most of the GP2 paddock knows what set up he was given in the wet race at Silverstone, and while that was the straw that broke the camel's back he still didn't complain publicly about it even when he left the team.

But really there doesn't seem to be much point in telling you these things because clearly you don't want to know, as it's fairly obvious you've got a problem with the guy, for whatever reason. So there's probably not much point going on with this discussion, I guess.

Well if you have reliable informations , just let us know

I just did report what Italiaracing said, but obviously sometimes (often) italiaracing is not relating the reality. I guess they tried to get the defense of Fillipi as he is an "Italian Hope"

So Filippi is to blame for what websites write now? Awesome.

I could tell you for a fact that he has never been quoted complaining about ART, and nor has he intimated any disapproval in his press releases: I know this because I know the guy. I can also tell you that most of the GP2 paddock knows what set up he was given in the wet race at Silverstone, and while that was the straw that broke the camel's back he still didn't complain publicly about it even when he left the team.


If a highly competitive team teams up with a highly competive driver, both obviously have expectations to fight for winning. If this combination is not producing results, it is normal that both parties loose confidence in the other.
Is is human and happens to everybody competitive. Splitting up is the only way. It can be done with or without style. Art have done so in style, Filippi, having to protect his interests has done so as well with the media. Some journalists have personal relationships with the drivers, as GP2 is not as F1, where the drivers communicate with the media trough team-prepared press releases. Everybody is eating at the same GP2 mandatory hospitality unit midday/evening for the whole weekend. So everybody knows everybody. Filippi might very well have ventilated his frustration to some journalists "off the record".
That Filippi wanted to turn page and not think anymore as to why things had not worked out with ART and concentrate on his future with Arden is also normal. Everybody does so in a similar situation, as one has been building up the career for 10 to 15 years and do not want to throw all this work away for one bad "half season".
Filippi's choice to go to Arden is a brave move, putting him under enourmous pressure by his own choice. It proves the guy has character. Hope for him that this works out. It is a difficult task.

Yes, but we have to conclude that so far it isn't working out at Arden for him.

I would've thought that 4 races with a new team for an experienced category driver, in what after all, is still a good team would be enough for the results to start coming?

Unfortunately, Jackman, you tend to blame so many drivers on this own series you're working for, but you can't admit that your own criteria dooms Filippi's future if you consider that an erratic driver, despite he could reach podiums and even wins in a situation where he is not enough supported, reflects that driver as "not good enough to be in F1". That's your words, not mine.

You must be more polite and kind with your rival drivers whenever it could not be of your preference, mostly considering there are other GP2 team personnel reading these messages that could not be happy if they read your statements about their drivers.

I'm sorry Mekola, I'm really not trying to be rude here, but I don't understand what you're trying to say.

Its all to do with a good base car a talented driver and the team operating in a professional manner, and sensible engineering principles as well as a certain driver psychology, and thats it. All this slagging is pathetic and for GP2 team members to be talking in such a manner shows very little professionalism, shame!!!

Now the GP2 season has ended I would be interested to know Runshaw & Bradrive's (as staunch supporters) views on Fillipi's future, does he have one in your oppinion? and in what formula? do you still think he is still good enough for F1? or do you think he should change direction and try sports cars or touring cars.? Or maybe USA??

This is a genuine enquiry not ment to offend.

If I where him I would try USA.

I'm not a staunch supporter. I just wouldn't describe him as an average driver considering his 2007 season, where he beat everyone in the field at one time or another on a very strong GP2 grid.

I was always expecting his form to turn around this year, but obviously that never happened. Last year he finished 2nd in the feature race at Spa, and had two strong 2nd place finishes at Monza. But his performance at those two tracks in the past week is beyond me. He qualified well yesterday in 4th, but his races were terrible. Based on these performance, I don't see Honda signing him for another year.

I think he should have one more crack at GP2, then go to the IRL, where i'm sure he would be in the top 10. Conway recently tested an IRL car for the first time and blew everyone away, i'm sure Filippi would adapt too.

I think he should have one more crack at GP2, then go to the IRL, where i'm sure he would be in the top 10. Conway recently tested an IRL car for the first time and blew everyone away, i'm sure Filippi would adapt too.[/quote]

I suppose it all comes down to his backers, if they have the budget for another year of GP2 where do they put him? What would another season like this one do for him, and if he did improve to top 6 maybe would that progress him to F1, I think he has missed his chance with F1, that leaves IRL I agree with you I think with new direction he could crack it. But there are a lot of Europeans looking for seats in the USA.

I think i have read on this forum that Fillipi will more than likely go back to Super-Nova next season...

I think i have read on this forum that Fillipi will more than likely go back to Super-Nova next season...

He should have stayed with them this season and in GP2 Asia, it could be a total waste of time and money, read Ron Dennis's dissmisive views of this years GP2 on crash net.

After Vettels (from WSR) fantastic win at Monza and Giedo van der Garde's season in World Series (bound for F1) maybe its time to look again at WSR for the next crop of F1 drivers.

AFAIAC, Luca has shot his bolt in GP2 now. Sure if he's got funding he will be attractive to most team owners but based on what he did this year, it seems to me that has he been 'found out.'

Then again, perhaps Grosjean will have a 'shocker' next season and we can start this debate all over again from scratch!!

Also I think WSR had been just as useful a place to look for F1 talent as GP2 over last few years. If there are a standout driver or two, they will be noticeable whatever category they are in.

Just so happens that most guys see GP2 as a step further than Renault on the ladder and that has become the norm so to speak.