2008/09 GP2 Asia & 2009 GP2 Main Series Off season/General discussion)

[chunterer]

Yes, and I agree there's nothing wrong with a decent best of the rest series?

So is there any more news on who's taking seats?

Could do with someone posting a reminder of how the line up looks so far?

[Spudy]

Originally Posted by WSR Fan

With Dani Clos looking more than likely at RE, and Charles Pic seemingly confirmed in the World Series again, does this potentially open the door for Oliver Turvey to take the second iSport seat alongside van der Garde?

Although saying that, does anyone know what the situation is regarding Karun Chandhok? I thought he was on a two-year deal at iSport, but that doesn't seem to be the case does it.

I would think Chandhok is out of the frame for the iSport seat, surely they would have just confirmed him if he was staying. I'm pretty sure Conway would have been favourite for the other iSport seat but I'm guessing they are holding on to hear from Senna so he moved on.

I think Senna will be at iSport as time is ticking on and the Honda situation looks bleak. Diego Nunes has loads of money I reckon if Senna doesn't commit to iSport they'll sign him.

I wonder what Di Grassi plans to do now Renault have closed the door on him?

[Alex K]

DiGrassi wonders around IndyCar paddock last I heard, I think KV Racing Technology and Newman Haas Lanigan Racing took him into consideration few weeks ago...

[OJB]

Originally Posted by Spudy

I'm pretty sure Conway would have been favourite for the other iSport seat but I'm guessing they are holding on to hear from Senna so he moved on.

Hasn't Conway confirmed he is racing in Indy Lights next year?

I'm surprised one of the F1 teams hasn't snapped up Senna for testing at least, same with di Grassi. It's a shame they chose Grosjean over him again!

[Albeckinho]

Conway races in Indycar next year in Dreyer & Reinbold Racing AFAIK.

http://www.indycar.com/news/?story_id=13025

And I read somewhere that Senna has signed with iSport for 2009.

[ivanalesi]

di Grassi isn't attractive to Renault because he did more than 4 days of testing already, they need a rookies I'm surprised we don't have more interesting test drivers announced.

[WSR Fan]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73108

As rumoured, Karun Chandhok signs for Ocean Racing Technology.

[Go_For_Pole]

Very interesting to read that a deal with iSport was not forthcoming due to Karun's budget.

[Spudy]

That is interesting, but I would be suprised if the money was why iSport dropped him. He didn't do that great last year when he was in a team that was close to winning the title I would think they were looking to replace him anyway.

I wonder who will take the remianing seat at iSport then? I think van der Garde is a def for one of the drives.

[chunterer]

Right come on then, let's have an updated provisional entry list somebody?!!

[WSR Fan]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Right come on then, let's have an updated provisional entry list somebody?!!

Here's one I came up with after a little fact-finding

Campos - Petrov, Grosjean, Perez
iSport - van der Garde, Senna
Piquet GP - Rodriguez, Nunes, Valerio
Racing Engineering - Parente, Clos, Villa, di Grassi
ART Grand Prix - Hulkenberg, Maldonado
Arden - Van der Zande, Mortara, Razia
Super Nova - Filippi, Villa, Jakes
DAMS - Kobayashi, d'Ambrosio
Trident - Van der Drift, Valles, Valerio
FMSI - Zuber, Gonzalez, Crestani, Ebbesvik
Durango - Valsecchi, Dalle Stelle, Puglisi
Ocean - Chandhok, Crestani, Buurman, Albuquerque
DPR - Herck, Ricci, Nunes

Confirmed
Likely
Possible
Outside Chance

[chunterer]

Nice one, just what the thread needed so we can see who's possible etc

[Spudy]

I think you are pretty close on that! But I'll make a couple of changes.

These are the ones I think. Its more difficult as you get lower down the grid!

ART - Maldonado, Hulkenberg
iSport - van der Garde, Nunes
Campos - Petrov, Grosjean
Racing Engineering - Senna, Parente, Clos
DAMS - Kobayashi, d'Ambrosio
Super Nova - Fillipi, Villa
Arden - one of the dutch guys, Razia
Trident - Valerio,
Piquet - Rodriguez
OCR - Chandhok, Crestiani
DPR - Herck, Will Bratt
FMS - Zuber,

Its quite difficult, but I think Senna is waiting on Honda so I doubt he has worked on a budget for GP2, in that case RE will probably be the only team who could afford to run him free. Sad as I think he would win it with iSport and it was a good fit with them.

What I do think is that everyone is waiting on iSport so once that is annouced everyone will do their deals.

[Go_For_Pole]

I wonder what iSport's expectations would be with such a line-up

[OJB]

I'd say that the list is pretty spot-on based on rumour and judgement, but I fear they will change considerably due to the state of the financial world.

I wonder if iSport, which is being funded by Hamad Al Fardan in Asia, will continue with him into Europe. Also, Trust aren't sponsoring Arden anymore it seems (although that could just be Asia) so I'd guess they'll chase Mortara if he comes with VW backing.

I reckon we'll see a very different field finish the season compared to the one that started it!

[Spudy]

I think iSport's expectations if they did go with a van der Garde/Nunes line up would have to be lower than what it would have been had Senna come back.

You never know what kind of magic they can produce with the right driver but you would have to say Grosjean at Campos would have to be favourite.

[the sniper]

Official, Senna wont be doing GP2, he's holding out on F1.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/73122

Nunes deal hopefully to be finalised by the end of the week.

[OJB]

Almost as if they were listening to us, Autosport say that Senna won't return to GP2 this year and iSport are set to confirm van der Garde and Nunes for 2009.

It's a fair pairing - van der Garde is the stand out rookie at the moment, even if he has been consistent rather than fast, while Nunes showed good flashes at DPR last year. Campos, ART and DAMS have the better driver line-ups though

[OJB]

Woah, snap!! One minute apart!

[Alex K]

I think iSport chose that line-up because they require drivers with full budgets, because team don't have any backing behind it. Vd Garde and Nunes have budgets that's why they were chosen.

[META4]

I guess Chandhok has the full Budget to run in GP2, even if he lost the RedBull Backing. Would have been more sensible for Isport to Keep Karun Onboard IMO

[Alex K]

Not according to his ORT PR!

[META4]

Originally Posted by Alex K

Not according to his ORT PR!

What do u Mean?

[Alex K]

Originally Posted by Karun Chandhok

(...)iSport was a very good team but we could not conclude a suitable financial agreement and have parted ways on good terms.(...)

My understanding is, that he didn't have enough funds to sign for iSport, I might be wrong on that, but that is my understanding. Think about it Metaphore, you don't sign deal with new team when you have chance to stay with proven title contender team, innit?!

[META4]

ok understood