GP2 2010

The 2010 GP2 seasons kicks off next month at the Circuit de Catalunya and this season sees three British drivers and three British teams participating. Drivers Oliver Turvey, Sam Bird and Max Chilton will be looking to catch the eye in Formula One’s ‘feeder series’. The British teams involved this season are iSport International, Super Nova Racing and David Price Racing (DPR). This season will be the last for the second generation GP2 car.

The calendar (each round has 2 races)

May 8/9 – Round 1 @ Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona
May 15/16 – Round 2 @ Monaco
May 29/30 – Round 3 @ Istanbul Park, Turkey
June 19/20 – Round 4 @  Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, Portimao, Portugal
June 26/27 – Round 5 @ Valencia Street circuit, Spain
July 10/11 – Round 6 @ Silverstone, England
July 24/25 – Round 7 @ Hockenheimring, Germany
July 31/1 Aug – Round 8 @ Hungaroring, Hungary
Aug 28/29 – Round 9 @ Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium
September 11/12 – Round 10 @ Monza, Italy
November 13/14 – Round 11 @ Yas Marina circuit, Abu Dhabi

The Drivers

Three Brits are driving in GP2 this year. Sam Bird will be racing for 2009 team champions ART Grand Prix and Oliver Turvey is at Norfolk based team, iSport International. Youngest of the three is Max Chilton who will be driving for Ocean Racing Technology.

Sam Bird joins the GP2 grid after two years in Euro F3. Sam, like  Oliver Turvey, joins a top team in the GP2 series and the expectations will be high. His team mate at ART is Frenchman Jules Bianchi. Bianchi won the Euro F3 championship last year and in December penned a long-term deal with Ferrari. Sam Bird has the pressure of delivering not only against a tough team mate but also for a team that lists Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as previous drivers. Sam competed in the GP2 Asia series (this series uses an older car than the main GP2 series) and his best result was a 2nd place finish at Bahrain.

Previous:

2009 – Euro F3, 8th overall
2008 – Euro F3, 11th overall
2007 – British F3, 4th overall
2006 – Formula Renault UK, 4th overall

Oliver Turvey has moved from the Renault World Series into GP2 for 2010. Like Sam Bird, Oliver took part in the GP2 Asia series where he won the feature race at the second round at Abu Dhabi. For the 2010 GP2 series championship, he will have Davide Valsecchi as his team-mate. Valsecchi, enters his third year of GP2 action and is the GP2 Asia 2009/10 champion. Turvey is part of the Racing Steps Foundation project, which aims to provide sponsorship to talented drivers who lack funds.

Previous:

2009 – Renault World series, 4th overall
2008 – British F3, 2nd overall
2007 – Eurocup Formula Renault 8th / Formula Renault Italy 9th
2006 – Formula BMW UK, 2nd overall

19yr old Max Chilton has the opportunity to shine for Portuguese outfit, Ocean Racing Technology. The Brit moves to GP2 after 3 consecutive years in British F3 where last year he finished 4th in the championship. Max took part in GP2 Asia and raced for both Ocean Racing Technology and Barwa Addax. His best result was a credible 6th place at Abu Dhabi. Chilton’s team mate at Ocean will be Fabio Leimer.

Previous:

2009 – British F3, 4th overall
2008 – British F3, 10th overall
2007 – British F3, 18th overall
2006 – T-Cars, 2nd overall

The teams

iSport International – Britain’s most successful GP2 team will be looking to continue their good form, following the capture of the GP2 Asia 2009/2010 constructors championship. The Norfolk based team will want to improve on their 5th place in last years championship.

Drivers: Oliver Turvey and Davide Valsecchi
Team History: 2009 – 5th, 2008 – 2nd, 2007 –  champions, 2006 – 3rd, 2005 – 4th.

Super Nova Racing – With experience from the days of F3000, Super Nova finished third last year with some impressive drives by Luca Filippi. The team have been competing in GP2 since the series’ inception in 2005.

Drivers: Marcus Ericsson and Josef Kral
Team History: 2009 – 3rd, 2008 – 7th, 2007 – 4th, 2006 – 9th, 2005 – 3rd.

David Price Racing (DPR) – Since 1976, David Price Racing has been involved in various forms of motorsports and in 2005 entered GP2. The team has won 2 races in GP2, both in 2005. 2010 may be a tough year for David Price Racing but they certainly have the experience.

Drivers: Michael Herck and Giacomo Ricci.
Team History: 2009 – 13th, 2008 – 13th, 2007 – 12th, 2005 – 10th

[Photos courtesy of the GP2 Media service, graphics by ACalder.co.uk]

In this mid-week review Formula One, GP2 Asia and the IRL go under the microscope.

F1

Sunday saw the first race of the Formula One season at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain. After much anticipation and excitement, the race was a bit of an anti-climax. Little overtaking and little action (on track or pitstop related) has the world’s press speculating as to whether the rule changes for this year were ill advised. Some are calling for the rules to be changed immediately, while others are calling for patience, given that it was only the first grand prix of the season. Mark Webber has certainly made his views clear on his Twitter feed.

The race failed to provide the entertainment fans were expecting. While the rules have been scrutinised, the new look Bahrain circuit didn’t do the F1 paddock any favours with its additional slow and tight corners. It would be good to see the Sakhir circuit revert back to its previous layout.

The RedBull of Sebastian Vettel and the two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa looked a class above the rest. While Vettel was unfortunate to suffer a failure, the form of the Ferrari team must be a bit ominous to the other teams in the paddock. The bookies favourite, Alonso, looked at home and showed the class of a Formula One champion and Brazilian Felipe Massa drove very impressively on his return to the sport.

As a speculated long term target for Mercedes GP, Sebastian Vettel put in a fine performance in qualifying and drove well in the race. If he continues to drive so well, you may wonder what damage it will do to RedBull if he leaves. Of course, he could make RedBull a team of his own. They may well win the championship this year so he will see no point in leaving. The lure of a traditional brand in Mercedes may be too hard to turn down in the long term. Michael Schumacher made Benetton a team of his own in the mid-90s, before leaving for Ferrari. While you can argue that losing such a talent would hurt any team, the Benetton team were never the same. Whether RedBull will have a similar fate, it will be interesting to see how things develop.

On the broadcasting front, the BBC did a good job of the coverage this weekend, despite having to deal with a couple of items outside of their realm. The first being the lack of onscreen graphics during the practice and qualifying sessions (the race was not so much affected). While the onscreen graphics provided the time of the driver in the #1 spot, it failed to show the running order of the drivers in the session, so we were left to guess who was in positions 2 -24. The BBC has received a number of viewers feedback about this and will be talking to the authorities involved. The other issue was the bizarre no show of the F1 drivers on the grid. Martin Brundle, despite his best efforts must of thought it was a bad day at the office. The ban of drivers’ physios on the grid by Bernie Ecclestone, made the drivers stay away from the grid in protest. Hopefully this silly issue will be rectified and normal service can be resumed in Melbourne.

Next race: Melbourne, 28th March

GP2

The final two rounds of the GP2 Asia series supported the F1 crowd at the Bahrain circuit this weekend. Brit Oliver Turvey topped free practice, qualified 3rd but was unable to convert it into a good race result and finished 9th in the feature race and 11th in the sprint race. Fellow Brit Sam Bird qualified 11th and made good progress in the feature race, finishing 6th. On Sunday’s sprint race, Bird got his first podium with the ART Grand Prix team, finishing 2nd to Italian Giacomo Ricci.

Next race: Main GP2 series starts 8th May in Barcelona

IRL

The first race of the IndyCar season took place on the streets of Sao Paulo. The track proved to be a test for the drivers with its many bumps (memories of late 80s/early 90s US F1 races) and dusty surface. Qualifying was postponed to race day after the series director received feedback from the drivers over safety. The pole was eventually grabbed by Dario Franchitti.

The race itself saw a first lap, first turn pile up. New boy Takuma Sato appeared to lose control under braking, causing Scott Dixon to spin. In trying to avoid Dixon, other drivers collided and Mario Moraes’ car launched over the car of Marco Andretti. Andretti lucky to escape unharmed. Mid-way through the race, the weather took a turn for the worse and the race was red flagged for 35 minutes due to the standing water on the circuit. The race was won by Australian Will Power. The accolade of top Brit went to Dan Wheldon who finished in 5th place for Panther Racing. Dario Franchitti finished 7th, Mike Conway finished in 8th, Justin Wilson finished in 11th and Alex Lloyd finished 18th on his debut in the series.

Race highlights available here (Official IRL channel)

Next race: St.Petersburg on the 28th March.

[Image courtesy of the GP2 Media Service]