F1 Fanatic

Leimer- hasn’t impressed; is a candidate for an HRT seat in 2012 due to his money. Does he deserve that seat IMO? No.

Leal- has money, lots of it; doesn’t deserve F1 OR GP2.

Razia- too average, doesn’t deserve anything yet.

Valsecchi- slightly better than Razia. Some impressive performances, but hasn’t done enough in his long stint in GP2.

Gutierrez- showed promise and speed in ’11; needs consistency if he wants a 2013 Sauber
seat.

Bianchi- The only way for him to get an F1 seat is to win the GP2 crown; that’s how much hype he recieves.

Filippi- Yes; one may argue that he’s been at it too long, but the second half of his season was more brilliant than Grosjean’s whole season.

Rigon- I have yet to see.

Ceccon- Far too young. He will be on the GP2 grid next year for sure, but AutoGP is a completely different ballgame than GP2.

Pic- has the money and the talent to make it to F1. Give him one more year.

Van Der Garde- makes up for blistering speed with consistency and McGregor cash. Candidate for Williams and Virgin drives. I do not believe he deserves a seat based on talent, though.

Gonzalez- “AW HELL NAW”.

Ceccotto, Jr.- No, no, no, no, no.

Fauzy- No. Can’t even pronounce his name.

Herck- “N” to the “O”.

Chilton- Unimpressive.

Parente- has had mixed results, but I think he is F1 material.

Bird- Over-hyped. Doesn’t deserve anything as of yet, but he is a pretty good driver.

Ericsson- Improving; I’m interested to see how he will fare in GP2 next year.

Vietoris- Top driver; I’d like to see him at Force India in 2013. Could’ve have been higher up the standings had he not missed two GP meetings.

Clos- been in the sport too long; really good, but not great.

Carroll- too old for F1, but he shows promise.

Mirocha- who? No.

Aleshin- Hasn’t impressed in GP2.

As for the drivers I expect to see on the GP2 grid next year, they are: Müller, Haryanto, Bottas, Calado, Korjus, Afansyiev, Felix da Costa, Merhi, Melker, Vergne/Wickens (depends on the FR 3.5 outcome), and Rossi. I would like to see Felipe Nasr on the grid but a lack of sponsors means that he will probably end up in the cheaper FR3.5.

@Joel Holland, the Aleshin comment is a bit incorrect. He passed Ricciardo with about 10 laps to go, when Dan had oil leaking directly onto his rear tyres. In 2010, Aleshin was probably the 3rd most-deserving driver of the 3.5 title. Guerrieri > Ricciardo > Aleshin. Esteban was just the fastest virtually every time he sat in the car. If he wasn’t, then Ricciardo was the fastest. Aleshin capitalised each time either one of them made a mistake or the teams made a mistake (pit lane issues, putting the tyres on the car too close to the race start, causing Ricciardo – and others – to get penalties etc).

@Toby Okay cool, wasn’t 100% on when Aleshin passed Ricciardo. Just enjoyed the irony of a dropped RB junior passing their latest great hope.

Totally agree with that assessment though, Guerrieri was the fastest man last year followed by Ricciardo. Aleshin limped to it. Esteban is real talent, F1′s loss. The fact that he couldn’t get a GP2 seat (because he couldn’t afford it) tells you there’s something wrong with the series. That and the fact that Ricardo Texeira was ever allowed to sit in a car.

Wickens doesn’t have money. That’s why he went into Formula Renault instead of GP2 this year – GP2 was too expensive.

Well, there is a theory that Trulli can be bought out of his contract. Apparently Fernandes signed him up for two years at the start of 2011, spreading Trulli’s salary over two years because they weren’t sure they could afford him and effectively said “We can’t pay what you want over one year, but if you agree to take it over two, we can guarantee you a seat in 2012″, and Trulli has been in the sport so long that the money doesn’t matter to him. If so, anyone who wants that seat could buy Trulli out of it for the price of half his salary (since half has already been paid).