GP2 races @ Spa 2014

[skells22]

after a month away time for the GP2 gang to come back to race action on the longest track of the year. i know the weather could play a part in next weeks races as sometimes its wet and some times its dry.

[p-matt]

It'll be interesting to see if Rossi ends up at Campos for the rest of the year. On paper he's not in a great situation - Dillmann has been mega in the seat he vacated, and Sato got his act together with a strong qualifying in Hungary.

[bella]

does rossi stand much of a chance forging a career in f1 beyond being a token 3rd driver for nationality reasons? does he have a big enough budget to buy himself a season or two in elms/wec to get himself started there?

[p-matt]

The Haas seat is certainly possible. Or the Marussia next year.

The thing is, he's not a bad driver. And he has lots of experience in an F1 team. He just can't string it all together for whatever reason. I think he'd do a very solid job in an F1 car.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

He may not be a bad driver, but to me he's never looked like a really good one either. Marciello and Vandoorne have walked past him in their rookie seasons, and Sorensen - not the FR3.5 pacesetter, certainly not this season - is at least as fast as him with 0 testing. In what way is Rossi (and half of the GP2 grid, for that matter) near Formula 1 quality? You want American? Sign RHR or just wait a bit for Ferrucci to get better and be more experienced. Haas is entering in 2016, so that's long enough for Matthew Brabham or Sage Karam to make some headlines. Haas may not even go for an American driver anyway unless there is one of top tier quality.

Anyway, moving on, will Palmer (Will Palmer!!!) have a bad weekend, will Nasr have a better one, and will Mitch Evans sort his qualifying out?

[chunterer]

Got to say I agree to a large degree. Sorensen has shown up 75% of the grid for what they are, pretty average journeymen and at the same time seems to have shown that there are some very poorly engineered teams in FR3.5 this year!

Wonder what Carlos Sainz will do now Marko has rammed Verstappen in frobt of him in the F1 pecking order? Methinks he will still be part of Red Bull but would they pay for him to so GP2 or will dad have to start networking sharpish, like?

[p-matt]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Got to say I agree to a large degree. Sorensen has shown up 75% of the grid for what they are, pretty average journeymen and at the same time seems to have shown that there are some very poorly engineered teams in FR3.5 this year!

You really are so anti-GP2 and pro FR3.5 that I can't really take seriously what you say. Sorensen's done a very good solid job in GP2 but he hasn't shown up the grid in GP2 as journeymen. It seems to be a bit of selective thinking to explain off Sorensen's poor performance in FR3.5 as being down to poor engineering, and some GP2 drivers' poor performance to them being journeymen. Tech1 were fighting for the championship all of two years ago, and were competitive with Melker last year, so I don't see how they've suddenly gone so badly wrong this year. There seems to be some GP2 teams whose engineering is making their drivers look worse than they are, Hilmer being one example.

In answer to my question earlier, Rossi will be racing for Marussia this weekend. So even if it's a one-off, presumably he can't now return to GP2 ever?

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by p-matt

In answer to my question earlier, Rossi will be racing for Marussia this weekend. So even if it's a one-off, presumably he can't now return to GP2 ever?

Have the rules changes since Glock and Pantano reutrned to GP2 from F1?
That would seem a little harsh, especially if it was only a one-off race.

[p-matt]

Yes, I think they did change the rules so ex-f1 drivers couldn't return. Grosjean was probably the last.

[Go_For_Pole]

and based on Chilton's press release there goes the myth that Rossi was struggling for budget

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by p-matt

You really are so anti-GP2 and pro FR3.5 that I can't really take seriously what you say. Sorensen's done a very good solid job in GP2 but he hasn't shown up the grid in GP2 as journeymen. It seems to be a bit of selective thinking to explain off Sorensen's poor performance in FR3.5 as being down to poor engineering, and some GP2 drivers' poor performance to them being journeymen. Tech1 were fighting for the championship all of two years ago, and were competitive with Melker last year, so I don't see how they've suddenly gone so badly wrong this year. There seems to be some GP2 teams whose engineering is making their drivers look worse than they are, Hilmer being one example.

In answer to my question earlier, Rossi will be racing for Marussia this weekend. So even if it's a one-off, presumably he can't now return to GP2 ever?

Neither you, or anyone else have to agree with what I say. (And if we're calling people's opinions out, do you not think p-matt, that people likely see you as overtly pro GP2 and anti 3.5 from your posts?!

I call my motorsport as I see it, with a healthy dose of logic I may add, based on 25 years of almost obsessively observing and analysing motor racing at this level.

I certainly am not anti GP2 or pro 3.5, I was long extolling the virtues of GP2 when the category had quality throughout, in terms of drivers and engineering even when ART were making a bit of a mockery of the order with their huge 'setup' advantages.

Nowadays there is something not quite 'kosher' about the category and the results really do bear it out based on the randomness of performances.

Similarly I used to think 3.5 lacked calibre in teams and drivers but in the last few years it had really moved forwards. Until this year, which is suffering from a bit of a drought in entries. Teams can change in fortune, as DAMS did for many years in GP2 until they returned to winning ways in recent years, so I am fairly convinced Tech1 is not the same force as it has been in recent years for one reason or another.

I also ought to add that in my role as section co-host, I will post thoughts that may encourage some debate whether that's positively or negatively for some people.

Back to this weekend, unless Palmer has a dodgy weekend or loses some of his immense race pace advantage, Nasr will be needing miracles.

The one thing that I will be looking out for on the ultimate drivers circuit is how the top guys cope in changeable weather, and how, if at all, that effects the tyre degradation etc.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Just to put it out there, about 60% of both the GP2 and FR3.5 grids feature journeymen. There is more quality in the FR Eurocup and European F3 series. Far more quality.

[kotkot]

Well, sure, the bigger the cost is, the less talent matters and the harder graduating becomes without a big budget.

[bella]

i think you'll find the lack of talent in 3.5 and gp2 relates directly to when the economic crisis was hitting young drivers starting out in cars and doing expensive karting. no money for them from the family and associated business? no racing career. that early squeeze has gradually worked its way through the system. think back 2-3 years ago, euro f3 wasn't exactly thriving but 3.5 was doing well.

after things eased a bit, at least everywhere but the countries in bailout conditions, quality went up. think the vandoorne/kvyat/sainz years in 2 litre and the eurocup, and now in european f3.

course it's not ALL down to that but i think it's a very significant factor.

in actual gp2 news, vandoorne on pole for his home race. good lad

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Palmer is 2nd, Nasr is 11th.

[chunterer]

Game over in that case?

[cds_uk]

Credit where it's due, Palmer has had him covered since this time last year.

[Beryl]

Oh, how quickly did Marciello and Markelov go from heroes to zeroes. Coletti went the other way, very good drive from him in race 2.

Palmer looking good for the championship. Despite Nasr thoroughly outclassing him over the two Spa races, Felipe only gained 11 points and is still 32 points back with only three weekends to run. Felipe will need a pole-coverted-to-feature-race-win or Jolyon to have trouble to close things up, and he's running out of races.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115570

This is war! I'm on Felipe's side, as I have been since 2010 and he fell off Thruxton in style.