1. Fabio Leimer – he has shown good improvent throughout the season and during the last test sessions at Jerez, but he needs to focus on GP2 for now.
2. Julian Leal – definitely not.
3. Charles Pic – had the upper hand on van der Garde in the second half of the season and is aiming for an ART seat for 2012 to challenge for the title. He might deserve F1 in 2013 if he has a good next season.
4. Giedo van der Garde – started the season well but disappeared. With his experience he can’t wait too much before shining or he might suffer the same fate as Pantano. He might not have won the title but his potential must be already known by the F1 team bosses.
5. Jules Bianchi – started his season badly, but improved and scored consistently, although giving places away because of silly mistakes (Germany and Italy as examples). He might have been unlucky in GP2 and he showed he can be really good at times and deserves F1 in my opinion.
6. Esteban Gutierrez – scoring his first win before Bianchi thrilled me and I thought he’d have had a better end to the season. He needs another GP2 season to battle for wins, but he is definitely an F1 candidate for 2013.
7. Dani Clos – sometimes he can be good, but not one of the most deserving for F1.
8. Christian Vietoris – he has improved a lot and his testing role for 2012 with Mercedes shows he has backing from an F1 team but he probably will remain in GP2 next season, and can be a driver to watch out for in 2013.
9. Sam Bird – should’ve done more than what he did, and currently I can’t see him in F1.
10. Marcus Ericcson – not deserving of F1 at the moment.
11. Romain Grosjean – obviously he has talent, and experience as well, but he’s won often in his career and deserves to be in F1 in 2012. It’s GP2′s goal to help young drivers reach F1 – how can the most deserving of them fail to do so?
12. Pal varhaug – unlike Gutierrez, the step from GP3 was not recieved positively and not only does he not deserve F1, but I’d say even GP2, according to his current form.
14. Josef Kral – no.
15. Jolyon Palmer – no.
16. Fairuz Fauzy – he scored his first points in GP2 in his third season – this year. He was beaten by Filippi regularly and I can’t understand why he’s back in F1′s feeder series.
17. Luca Filippi – he might have more experience than anyone else (107 races) but his second part of the year with Scuderia Coloni was more impressive than Grosjean’s. He found a good place and collected great results every weekend, ultimately becoming the vice-champion. I can’t see him as an F1 winner in future, more because of the teams he’d drive for (a-la Trulli), but he deserves more than GP2.
18. Michael Herck – thrashed by Filippi, he doesn’t deserve F1 at all.
19. Davide Rigon – having missed most of the season, he needs to remain in GP2 and continue his simulator testing role with Ferrari, but it’s too early to talk about F1.
20. Rodolfo Gonzalez – definitely not.
21. Stefano Coletti – we could see him in F1 in 2013 if he continues his good form of 2011. He was only in GP3 last year and is making rapid progress, but as has been often said, GP2 is now a two-year programme.
22. Kevin Mirocha – no.
23. Johnny Cecotto Jr. – no.
24. Max Chilton – no.
25. Mikhail Aleshin – he failed to score points in GP2, and despite having won FR3.5 in 2010 he is still too young for F1.
26. Luiz Razia – having his experience he should’ve had a pole position before the Hungarian round this year. Poor results come between him and F1.
27. Davide Valsecchi – he had an amazing start to the season, but the way it ended, where he was not beating Razia any more, has made me change my mind, and unless he shines in GP2 next year he can’t land a seat in F1, which I’m sad to say as I was a fan of his, now I am more of Luca Filippi.
Stand-ins:
8/25. Alvaro Parente – good results – sometimes better than official drivers – have been mixed with mediocre performances, and F1 is too far away from him.
17. Adam Carroll – his return to GP2 has been positive, beating his team mate, but obviously if he deserved F1 he’d not be in GP2 after 6 years since he first competed there (which was his best season, with 3 wins).
19. Kevin Ceccon – he is very young and couldn’t score points in his GP2 outings – but he has just won Auto GP, against the driver that took his place and went on to win 3 races with his car in GP2 – Luca Filippi, by a mere 3 points. He can be a good talent in the future, but it’s hard to see what he can do in the years to come now.
21. Stephane Richelmi – he beat his team mate, but he wasn’t doing well in FR3.5 before entering GP2. If he wants to reach F1 he needs to win more.
22. Brendon Hartley – had some good and some bad moments in his few races in GP2 in 2011. If Red Bull counted on him, we can expect some positive results by him, and, who knows, he might end up in F1 some day – not in 2012, though.
25. Oliver Turvey – had a good debut season in 2010, and if he was given another full season we could see if he deserved F1.
