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The ladder, passed F.Renault is rather bizarre isn't it!
F2, F3 - National and Euro, GP3, WSR, GP2.
GP2 is slowly starting to add to its list of career-GP2 drivers, the Javier Villa's, Adam Carroll's, Filippi, Sam Bird - guys who won't break into F1, but seem to be able to make a career out of being at that level. Clearly the business model works for them and their sponsors.
WSR - a brilliant event in its own-right, but the level is a little questionable outside the top 6, I'd say.
The others, F3 is just too expensive. I remember sitting down with a now-GP2 driver a couple of years ago, when he was at a career crossroads. The cost of doing another season in F3, or jumping to GP2 wasn't as great as you may expect, and with the level of exposure that was on the table at that time with GP2, it was a no-brainer to make the leap into F1's feeder-series. There's a big enough understanding in the F1 paddock that only 4 or so teams in GP2 are real front-runners, so a low-ranking team, perceivably over-performing, at a similar cost to F3 was worth the jump...and so it's proved for him.
It would be interesting if Sky were to take over the entire F1 weekend, showing the likes of GP2/3, that would then make the likes of F3 etc, from a commercial point of view, even harder to justify, regardless of how good the GP3 equipment is...
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