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2012 GP2 driver market (113 posts)

Topic tags: GP2

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Official announcement from iSport:

http://www.isportinternational.com/latest-news/jolyon-palmer-joins-isport-for-2012-gp2-season/

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Coloni to run Stefano Coletti and Fabio Onidi (and not Kevin Ceccon, I guess):

Driver’s announcement – @stefanocoletti joins Scuderia Coloni in 2012 #GP2

— GP2 Series Official(@GP2_Official) January 10, 2012

Driver’s announcement – Fabio Onidi also confirmed at Scuderia Coloni in 2012 #GP2

— GP2 Series Official(@GP2_Official) January 10, 2012

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Arden recruits Simon Trummer:

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=1ac512917c6c22dcaec14ab34&id=b878b0e038

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Davide Valsecchi moves from AirAsia (now Caterham) to DAMS:

http://www.dams.fr/detail-actu2.php?lang=en&id=351

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Here’s who goes where for 2012 so far. I thought more than this had been confirmed, let me know if I’m missing any:

Addax

DAMS

Davide Valsecchi

Racing Engineering

iSport

Marcus Ericsson
Jolyon Palmer

Lotus (formerly ART)

Esteban Gutierrez
James Calado

Caterham (formerly AirAsia)

Coloni

Stefano Coletti
Fabio Onidi

Trident

Stephane Richelmi
Julian Leal

Super Nova

Rapax

Arden

Simon Trummer

Ocean

Nigel Melker

Carlin

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Fixy said 1 year, 5 months ago:

That’s it Keith.
Strange to see Davide remain. I thought the team was not impressed by him in the latter part of the season, and he’s had great instability in the series. Changing team every season certainly hasn’t helped him adapt to the car and crew.

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Joel Holland said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Ah good, Valsecchi: young blood. Glad to see GP2 is continuing to attract absolutely minted drivers with so-so ability levels. FYI Valsecchi’s dad is a multi-millionaire building magnate.

The prospect of Korjus vs Magnussen in FR 3.5 is genuinely exciting. GP2 is looking positively mundane at the minute.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 5 months ago:

GP2 is looking positively mundane at the minute.

I don’t agree – Lotus have got a corking line-up.

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Prisoner Monkeys said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Ah good, Valsecchi: young blood.

He’s twenty-four years old, and this will be his fifth season of GP2.

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Joel Holland said 1 year, 5 months ago:

@prisoner-monkeys Mate, sarcasm. He’ll be 25 by the time the season starts too! He’s been plodding about for years looking good at times and invisible at others. He’ll probably do a Maldonado and win the thing through sheer attrition.

@keithcollantine The Lotus line-up is decent, yes, though Calado really needs to stop finishing second. My point is more about the drivers who aren’t going to do GP2 this season: Roberto Mehri, Felipe Nasr, Kevin Magnussen, Kevin Korjus, Valtteri Bottas – that’s quite a list.

For the first two, I know, money is the stumbling black. So the British and Euro F3 champions can’t get a seat in the so-called ‘strongest F1 feeder series’. And what have GP2 done to help drive costs down? Added flyaway races. The field lacks quality in depth and that will, in the long-run, affect F1 too.

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Prisoner Monkeys said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Mate, sarcasm.

Sarcasm relies heavily on tone in order to communicate meaning. You are, after all, saying exactly the opposite of what you have written. However, you are on an internet forum – a medium with no means of adding tone to your posts, and hence the intended meaning is lost.

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Keith Collantine said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Addax have announced their first driver: Johnny Cecotto Jnr:

http://www.gp2series.com/News-Room/News/2012/01_January/Johnny-Cecotto-Jr-and-Barwa-Addax-join-forces-in-2012/

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Joel Holland said 1 year, 5 months ago:

The following should be read with a sarcastic tone:

Johnny Cecotto has signed for Addax! That’s a shrewd move based entirely on his abilities behind the wheel and in no way influenced by his massive piles of cash. After all, he did score zero points last season.

I’m sure Gutierrez and Calado will have a smile on their face reading that news. One less title contender to worry about.

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Prisoner Monkeys said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Cecotto is a bizarre choice, but Addax aren’t so desperate for money that they’re forced to take pay drivers. They have consistently finished the season in the top three since 2007, and have run five drivers (it could be six if van der Garde joins HRT) who have made it to Formula 1 (only ART Grand Prix have had more). So they clearly see something in Cecotto if they’re willing to take him.

But I think the signing really highlights the vaccuum in talent that has existed since 2010. Six drivers were promoted to Formula 1 for the 2010 season, then another two in 2011, and two (or three; van der Garde again) more for 2012. The rest of the grid has remained fairly constant since then, and those who are viable for a future in Formula 1 are still learning.

Formula Renault 3.5 looks more interesting this season.

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Joel Holland said 1 year, 5 months ago:

Addax have generally run very, very well-funded drivers: Pic (parents are multi-millionaires) and van der Garde (father-in-law is minted) in 2011; Perez (Telmex) and vdG in ’10; Petrov (Russian roubles) and Grosjean (Renault were paying) in ’09. It’s partly why they’re the best team.

The difference here is that they’ve taken a rubbish well-funded driver. Cecotto has been, quite frankly, hopeless in his two seasons of GP2. There has never been anything to suggest the guy is quick enough for this series, let alone F1.

This is the biggest indication yet that GP2 is broken.

I hope that Addax taken JC’s cash so as to allow them to give a real racing driver a discount for the second seat. It happens. If they come back next week saying Nasr, Mehri or Wickens have the drive I’ll revise my opinion. But at the moment this looks really bad.

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