GP2 2011 silly season.

[Rf1 Fan]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Still with Arden or another team?

Valtteri Bottas is testing for ART at Abu Dhabi after the final race.

There was rumour coming from Portugal as a possible driver of Team Air Asia with the support of Total who will become a Lotus sponsor in formula one with a seat of reserve driver.

[p-matt]

Who would have thought Michael Herck would be the first driver confirmed as signed for the Main Series in 2011, especially as DPR is no more. He will race with Coloni.

[chunterer]

So at present we have Herck signed at Coloni (hopefully with Parente back for a full season?)

Will the likes of Bird and Bianchi be staying at ART? I would imagine at least one of them will be moving because of their Ferrari and Merc connections now that ART is going to be less of an independent operation.

Wonder if Aleshin will move up from FR3.5 with Carlin? Perhaps one of Carlin's former F3 stars will sign up with them, I guess that will also need to be an experienced driver as well? Not sure how Trevor will want to work that (other than signing drivers with money obviously!)

Personally I would be interested to see who i-sport sign as they will want to return to winning ways after a couple of poorer seasons results wise?

I'm gonna list a few drivers who will likely be there:

Returnees:
Herck (confirmed)
Bianchi
Bird
van der garde
Parente
Grosjean
Pic
Vietoris
Arabadziev
Tung
Leimer

Stepping up from FR3.5:
Aleshin
Ricciardo
Guerrieri
Hartley?

From F3:
Bottas ?
Mortara
Sims

From GP3
Gutierrez
Jakes
Wickens?
Bortolotti
Coletti

Are there any more obvious ones people can add please?

[Rf1 Fan]

According to Franck Lagorce in last FR3.5 race on Eurosport France,Berthon could go to GP2.

He will test with Dams and ART.

Merhi has contact with Barwa Addax.
http://www.levante-emv.com/deportes/...f3/748546.html

[bella]

i think berthon would be better off throwing the money at the second tech1 seat in fr3.5. he might not be able to bring it to vergne but he'll give him a good run for his money, a lot more so than he could do in gp2 AND he'd get more tracktime. no brainer.

chunty, i'd count hartley out of gp2 - i get the feeling he's going to end up being grubmuller's paid friend at p1 now he's done a few winter tests with them a la van der garde.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by bella

i think berthon would be better off throwing the money at the second tech1 seat in fr3.5. he might not be able to bring it to vergne but he'll give him a good run for his money, a lot more so than he could do in gp2 AND he'd get more tracktime. no brainer.

chunty, i'd count hartley out of gp2 - i get the feeling he's going to end up being grubmuller's paid friend at p1 now he's done a few winter tests with them a la van der garde.

Yeah good point about Hartley, I suspect he will do 3.5 as you say but the drives he lined up with Coloni for the last 2 rounds of GP2 obviously weren't just to pan pan out his season, his 'team' are clearly looking at it as an option.

I guess a lot of drivers given the opportunity to take any GP2 drive over FR3.5 will take it as they would believe being on the GP support card is better than being in a possibly more competitive seat in a different series. Not to mention that GP2 is the next rung down from F1 anyway?

[Mr Pink]

Anyone heard anything about Ericsson? I hope he can step it up next year.

[Jamesy-18]

I'd be insteresting to see Mehri get a go in GP2 for sure, same with Vergne, but I guess he probably wants to do 3.5.

[bella]

Originally Posted by chunterer

I guess a lot of drivers given the opportunity to take any GP2 drive over FR3.5 will take it as they would believe being on the GP support card is better than being in a possibly more competitive seat in a different series. Not to mention that GP2 is the next rung down from F1 anyway?

i guess it depends how good their management is. berthon's shown a huge amount of potential this year, it'd be mad not to capitalise on having a year's experience in fr3.5 and get a potential title winning car. especially since, to be quite frank, there's going to be a fairly epic battle for the title but not very much talent below that. gp2 always seems to be the other way around - plenty of midfield talent and loads of drivers trying to find their feet in their first year but very few actual standouts.

on another slightly related note - i'd possibly argue that gp2 is as hard as f1 to do well and gain recognition in. petrov's battle to not look average in f1 is the story of most first year gp2 drivers.

[Speed-freak]

Originally Posted by Rf1 Fan

Pic will race in GP2 asia and GP2 main series for the 2011 season.

Good news.....you seem very sure, are the contracts signed?

[Rf1 Fan]

Originally Posted by Speed-freak

Good news.....you seem very sure, are the contracts signed?

He told that in his website:
Quels seront tes projets une fois cette saison 2010 achevée ?

J’ai profité de cette trêve pour travailler et préparer au mieux la saison prochaine. Je serai bien présent au départ des GP2 Asia Series cet hiver ainsi qu’en GP2 Main Series l’an prochain. La nouvelle monoplace de GP2 fera son apparition dès l’Asia Series et il sera intéressant d’en prendre les commandes pour constater le gain en performance.

English translation:

What are your projects when the 2010 season will be finished?

I took profit of this break to work and prepare in the best way the next season.I will present at the start of GP2 asia series this winter and the GP2 main series next year.The new car will be there in Asia series so it will be interesting to drive this car and the see the gain of performance of the car.

http://www.charles-pic.com/version2/...e_fr.php?id=59


I think that he may not have already signed the contract but i think that he will be in GP2 because he has a lot of Budget from his sponsor: Renault,Total,Dekra,Michelin,Idec Group and FFSA Team.

I think that he if went to Arden this year,it's because Eric Bernard (an adviser of his family) wanted to make learn Gp2 and how to work with a british team without too much pressure.

He will be in top team next year or F1 junior team i think.


Don't forget one thing,he is managed by Flavio Briatore.

[Jamesy-18]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88113

I guess the only slight suprise in this story is the team choice. ART instead of Addax.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Jamesy-18

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88113

I guess the only slight suprise in this story is the team choice. ART instead of Addax.

I guess it's for continuity reasons as he's driven for them since F3. Butlike to infer, Addax have generally been the cars to beat recently if you take Rapax out of the equation (their form was a bit of a surprise really.)

[alias99]

Esteban signed with ART and Bianchi is very likley to go there as well.

Where does that leave Sam Bird?

[ivanalesi]

I guess ART chose this line-up looking at the future. Sure the chances of Bianchi and Bird being in GP2 in 2012 are slim, while Esteban is quite likely to continue.
But I don't understand why not Bottas or Sims, both beat Guttierez in 2009 and both have the backing.

[alias99]

ART tends to get drivers they know can win the championship in their first year. The only reason Bianchi is staying is because of the missed races this year.

But you are right Sims and Bottas did beat him but then he had only just stepped out of FBMW.

As for Sims with his gravity backing he would most likely end up at DAMS with D'Ambrosio graduating to F1.

Guttierez going to ART free up an Addax seat which is where Bottas could end up.

If they keep Bianchi who is a Ferrari Academy Driver and test driver for 2011, He will be racing for Lotus ART which might lead to him going somehwere else??

I guess only time will tell

[Valker]

Bottas is unlikely to race in GP2. He (and Sims) may be heading to GP3, unfortunately.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Valker

Bottas is unlikely to race in GP2. He (and Sims) may be heading to GP3, unfortunately.

Sideways or more likely backwards step, although Williams can keep an eye on him easier I suppose?

Valtteri should be doing FR3.5 for a year not GP Qualcast.

[ivanalesi]

I hope this is not true. I would rather bet on Bottas and Sims winning GP2 outright than Guttierez. It would be a huge shame if a talent like Bottas goes to GP3. He would be amazing in GP2 qualifying...

[Rf1 Fan]

Gutierrez will make the shakedown of ART car,Vietoris if he is fit for Racing engineering and Pic will make also the shakedown for an unknown team.

The shakedown next week....

[Rf1 Fan]

Charles Pic will shakedown the dallara 2011 gp2 car of Barwa Addax.

http://www.toilef1.com/GP2-Pic-teste...rwa-Addax.html

[Robbe]

Coletti with Trident in 2011.

http://www.italiaracing.net/notizia.asp?id=29646&cat=4

[bella]

one thing i don't understand about coletti is that he's evidently absolutely loaded but he never goes for the good drives...

[chunterer]

Wonder if Hartley's performances this weekend will mean his management look to keep him in GP2 rather than carry on in FR3.5 next year?

[bella]

maybe look at it from the other angle - if you were grubmuller snr and you'd had hartley test and do a good job, would you see it as a wise investment to offer him a cut price deal to drive alongside grubmuller jnr? and if you were hartley and his management would you take that rather than pay whatever extortionate amount a gp2 drive would be with a mid-grid team on the off chance you catch art/lotus and the other front runners with their pants down?