He impressed them in Abu Dhabi. A lot. Kolles said Valsecchi “learned more about the car in a single afternoon than some drivers did in a whole season”. If that is indeed true and more than a backhanded swipe at Bruno Senna, Valsecchi may be worth looking into. I mean, look at Kamui Kobayashi – you wouldn’t know if based on his results in GP2, but he’s proven to do quite well for himself in Formula 1. He’s probably the best Japanese driver to date, and if he keeps the momentum up this season, he could find himself in a top drive for 2012. While I’m not saying that Davide Valsecchi will do the same, he could well be one of those drivers who simply thrives under the pressue of Formula 1. Looking at his GP2 results, he’s hardly a Plamen Kralev; he’s had two wins and three podims in GP2, and four wins, six podiums and a championship in GP2 Asia (in fact, he had twice as many points as anybody else that year). There’s certainly potential there. A year with a team like Rapax probably won’t hurt him, but he’s certainly someone I’d be considering if I were running a smaler team.
