737 replies to this topic

[Nacho]

Maybe he has some 4 year old Ferrari plans that Williams plans on using

Mike's last venture in F1 after the ban? That glamorous and super-legit team known as Stefan GP. The guy is just a magnet to shady activity.

Probably just eager to get back in F1.

He also worked for Waltrip racing and developed military vehicles.

http://www.forceprot...roducts/ocelot/

[Skyliner]

GP2 2011: New cars, new tyres and 26 drivers trying to reach F1

GP2
4 May 2011 by Keith CollantineThe top two drivers in GP2 last year – Pastor Maldonado and Sergio Perez – jumped straight into F1 this year.

Now former Renault driver Romain Grosjean has returned to the series in a bid to win the championship and propel himself back into the top flight.

But he faces strong opposition in the form of Ferrari test driver Jules Bianchi.


Drivers to watch
Romain Grosjean, DAMS, GP2, Barcelona, 2011

Romain Grosjean

Team: DAMS
Nationality: French (Swiss-born)
Age: 25
Career: F1 with Renault in 2009, 2007 F3 Euro Series champion, 2008 and 2010 GP2 Asia champion, 2010 Auto GP champion, GP2 with ART in 2008, Addax in 2009 (partial season), DAMS in 2010 (partial season)

Nothing less than the title will do for Grosjean. He was second, 12 points behind Nico Hülkenberg, when he abandoned his 2009 campaign to join Renault.

He's started off in the best way possible by winning the GP2 Asia series for the second time, though this year's championship was reduced to just four races due to the impossibility of racing in Bahrain.

Jules Bianchi, ART, GP2, Barcelona, 2011

Jules Bianchi

Team: ART
Nationality: French
Age: 21
Career: 2009 F3 Euro Series champion, GP2 with ART in 2010

Bianchi is fast and well-connected. He's on Ferrari's driver development scheme and drove for them in the young drivers' tests at the end of last year.

He drives for ART who have taken three out of six GP2 champions for the title. The team is co-owned by Jean Todt's son Nicolas.

The first race of the GP2 Asia series, where Bianchi prevailed in a closely-fought battle with Grosjean, raised the prospect of a fascinating season's racing between the two.

Sam Bird, iSport, GP2, Barcelona, 2011

Sam Bird

Team: iSport
Nationality: British
Age: 24
Career: GP2 with ART in 2010

Bird had some poor luck in his first season of GP2 last year with ART, but ended the year four points behind team mate and fellow rookie Bianchi.

He's moved to iSport, the team which took Timo Glock to the title in 2007.

Fabio Leimer, Rapax, GP2, Barcelona, 2011

Fabio Leimer

Team: Rapax
Nationality: Swiss
Age: 22
Career: 2009 Formula Master champion, GP2 with Ocean Racing in 2010

Leimer's unusual career path has avoided Formula Three entirely.

But he scored his maiden GP2 win with Ocean in 2010 and has joined Rapax, who took Pastor Maldonado to the championship last year.

Giedo van der Garde, Addax, GP2, Barcelona, 2011

Giedo van der Garde

Team: Addax
Nationality: Dutch
Age: 26
Career: 2008 Formula Renault 3.5 champion, GP2 with iSport in 2009, Addax in 2010.

Giedo van der Garde heads into his third season of GP2 and his second with Addax.

But although he has experience on his side he's placed seventh in both his previous seasons and was soundly beaten by team mate Sergio Perez last year. And that experience may count for less following the change of chassis this year.

Davide Valsecchi, Team Air Asia, GP2, Barcelona, 2011

Davide Valsecchi

Team: Air Asia
Nationality: Italian
Age: 24
Career: 2009 GP2 Asia champion

This is Valsecchi's fourth season in GP2 and there's only so long a driver can spend in the feeder series before being dubbed the next Giorgio Pantano.

But F1 teams have shown interest: he drove in the young drivers' test at the end of last year and was signed by Lotus as a reserve driver.

He drove in first practice at Sepang for the team and races for their new GP2 outfit Air Asia this year.

Esteban Gutierrez, ART, GP2, Barcelona, 2011

Esteban Gutierrez

Team: ART
Nationality: Mexican
Age: 19
Career: 2008 Formula BMW Europe champion, 2010 GP3 champion

The champion of the inaugural GP3 championship makes the step up to GP2 with the team he won his title for last year.

Gutierrez is Sauber's test driver and the opportunity of an excellent learning environment alongside Bianchi.


2011 GP2 driver line-up
At the time of writing there are two places left on the GP2 grid for 2011.

Russian Mikhail Aleshin was originally supposed to drive the second Carlin entry but dropped out after his funding fell through. There are reports he may have secured backing to do the first round this weekend.

TeamDriverDriverRapax1. Fabio Leimer2. Julian LealAddax3. Charles Pic4. Giedo van der GardeART5. Jules Bianchi6. Esteban GutierrezRacing Engineering7. Dani Clos8. Christian VietorisiSport9. Sam Bird10. Marcus EricssonDAMS11. Romain Grosjean12. Pal VarhaugArden International14. Josef Kral15. Jolyon PalmerSuper Nova Racing16. Fairuz Fauzy17. TBAScuderia Coloni18. Michael Herck19. Davide RigonTrident Racing20. Rodolfo Gonzalez21. Stefano ColettiOcean Racing Technology22. Kevin Mirocha23. Jonny Cecotto JnrCarlin24. Max Chilton25. TBATeam Air Asia26. Luiz Razia27. Davide Valsecchi
New cars, new tyres, same tracks
Max Chilton, Carlin, GP2, 2011

The departure of DPR and the arrival of new teams Carlin and Air Asia mean the championship is back to a full grid of 26 cars.

GP2 has switched to its third generation of chassis and it's an ugly beast, with wide front wings and narrow rear wings apeing the clumsy, disproportionate look of modern F1 cars.

But the tweaked aerodynamics and the arrival of Pirelli as tyre supplier should make for some interesting racing. The cars will use the same tyres raced in F1.

The calendar remains unchanged with a pair of races supporting all nine European F1 rounds.

There are some significant livery changes, including one where a new front has opened up in the Lotus-vs-Lotus battle. Group Lotus are sponsoring ART, whose cars now race in green and yellow, similar to the Lotus F1 cars.

But the Tony Fernandes-run team also have their own GP2 outfit, Team Air Asia. They race in white and red, much as ART did last year.


GP2 champions and runners-up
Lewis Hamilton, ART, Monza, 2006

GP2 has an excellent record of propelling new drivers into Formula 1. Of the 12 drivers to finish first or second in its first six years, 11 have progressed to F1.

Giorgio Pantano is the only one of these not to have moved into F1 after winning the title, but he had previously driven in F1 for Jordan in 2004.

YearChampionRunner-up
2005 Nico Rosberg Heikki Kovalainen
2006 Lewis Hamilton Nelson Piquet Jnr
2007 Timo Glock Lucas di Grassi
2008 Giorgio Pantano Bruno Senna
2009 Nico Hülkenberg Vitaly Petrov
2010 Pastor Maldonado Sergio Perez

Seven other GP2 drivers subsequently raced in F1: Scott Speed, Sebastien Buemi,Sakon Yamamoto, Kazuki Nakajima, Kamui Kobayashi, Karun Chandhok, Jerome d'Ambrosio.

[vietlol]

I was never too keen on the 12c but this gt3 looks pretty cool

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

I was never too keen on the 12c but this gt3 looks pretty cool

They fixed the ugly rear end problem and made it a racecar

[DrDickAction]

They fixed the ugly rear end problem and made it a racecar

Holy voltron rear.

[Redliner]

I just had to

[MrBucket]

wat

[_R_]

Formula 1 teams are ready to listen to what News Corporation's plans for the future are, saying that ownership of a share in the sport is an ambition they are keen to achieve.

Just days after News Corp went public in confirming it was involved in a tie-up with Italian investment group Exor to ponder a move into F1, and it was keen to engage in discussions with the sport's stakeholders, team representatives have said they are 'excited' about the latest developments.

McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who is chairman of the Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA), said that beyond securing future stability for the sport, teams were eager to become shareholders too.

"I think it ultimately is desirable to have team ownership of commercial rights," he declared during a media briefing held by FOTA in the McLaren motorhome.

"CVC [the current owners] have claimed, or their representative has claimed, that they are not looking to sell, but there are not many venture capitalists who want to keep businesses on their books infinitum. Who knows? I have no insight into it and I have not had the discussion personally with CVC.

"I think the teams want to ensure that first and foremost that we have stability, we want to ensure that the sport is sustainable and to be sustainable you need the appropriate level of investment to promote and develop the sport. You need the appropriate distribution of the revenues to teams to make it sustainable and those are the primary things.

"Largely, who owns it, to most teams, is not the biggest concern. I think you want stability, you want people investing in the future and you need an appropriate distribution to the teams, and if you have all those things and you have good owners, whoever they are, that is positive.

"The teams then I think, we have all got to look at whether we, each of us, want to be involved in an ownership model in the future, if the current owners want to sell. I suspect they will at some stage but we will have to see."

FOTA is due to hold a meeting on Sunday in Istanbul to discuss the News Corp situation, with Whitmarsh keen for teams to be unified when it comes time to talk to the media organisation.

"We will talk about," said Whitmarsh. "It will be the first time the teams have sat down and had discussions since some of the revelations of the week have come out, and it will be useful to get people's view.

"Part of getting the teams to work together is improved communication and before FOTA really, seldom did the teams sit down and say what do you think of this? What have you heard?

"We will be talking about some of the issues of which questions have been asked here, asking for views and whether teams feel comfortable that we are all on the same page and all pointing in the same direction - making sure we are all aligned on what our strategy should be for going forward commercially and in all the other facets of our sport."

When asked if FOTA would be open to hearing what News Corporation has to say about its future plans, Whitmarsh said: "Of course. We have to be open to that, but we have to be respectful of our relationship with the current commercial rights holder in terms of the limits of that we are not entering into any negotiations.

"But if people want to say: look we have an interest in buying into F1 we have an interest in buying maybe from CVC, what are your views?

"It is exciting if there are new organisations that may bring new things to the sport. I think that is to be encouraged."

Whitmarsh did play down talk, however, that the tie-up between New Corp and Exor, which has close links with Ferrari's parent company Fiat, was not the first step towards a breakaway championship.

"I don't think we or anyone at the moment wants to posture and threaten on that," he said. "We need to find a sustainable, commercial way forward. We want to see investment. Whether that is with existing partners or future partners, I think again we should be delighted that people are taking an interest in our sport and that wasn't the case a couple of years ago.

"We are seeing now a flow back of sponsorship interest at all levels of the sport, and that is positive. We have stabilised costs to a degree, we are trying to work together and if people are saying now is the opportunity to come in to F1, there are all sorts of pitfalls and trenches that we can fall into as we try and chart the path going forward. But hopefully we can find a positive way going forward for the sport."

Whitmarsh also made it clear that reports suggesting McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes GP were set for talks with News Corporation in Stuttgart next weekend were wide of the mark.

However, he suggested that it was likely shareholders from the leading teams - which including investment groups from Abu Dhabi and Bahrain - may well be in ongoing discussions with News Corp.

"We are all part of entities where our shareholders talk, they have businesses and they may well be having discussions. But it's not for me to confirm what they are doing and where they are going."

Renault team principal Eric Boullier added: "If there is a strong interest from a new buyer or someone who would like to enter into the buying process for F1, I understand there could be some consultation with the owner of the players [teams].

"That could be normal. It [stories of the four teams meeting] came up into the press and I think out of context, and this is why it is creating all these stories."

[MrHahn]

Spa 1000km quali

Audi - 1, 2, 3

Peugeot - 13, 18, 50


Fail

[Dr. Jimmmah!]

Spa 1000km quali

Audi - 1, 2, 3

Peugeot - 13, 18, 50


Fail

Seems like Peugeot were reliable when they weren't forced to run at 100%. Since Audi developed their car a bit last year to catch up to the 908HDi FAPFAPFAP, the Peugeots seem to have been falling apart left and right when running at full speed for long durations. With the new TDI this year being even faster, Peugeot has no chance.

[DrDickAction]

Seems like Peugeot were reliable when they weren't forced to run at 100%. Since Audi developed their car a bit last year to catch up to the 908HDi FAPFAPFAP, the Peugeots seem to have been falling apart left and right when running at full speed for long durations. With the new TDI this year being even faster, Peugeot has no chance.

[MrHahn]

Seems like Peugeot were reliable when they weren't forced to run at 100%. Since Audi developed their car a bit last year to catch up to the 908HDi FAPFAPFAP, the Peugeots seem to have been falling apart left and right when running at full speed for long durations. With the new TDI this year being even faster, Peugeot has no chance.

Even at Le Mans when they weren't pushing 100% they were DIAF

[_R_]

And peugeots take a 1-2 finish with Audi taking 3-5

[DrDickAction]

And peugeots take a 1-2 finish with Audi taking 3-5

6 hours - a whole lot less than 24.

[MrHahn]

Audi did a Peugeot, epic-est of fail.

Good sign is the Audi looked faster in race trim than the Peugeots

[MrBucket]

Strange photo this

[TimzSI]

Damn that Spa race sounds more interesting than the Turkey GP was.

[Redliner]

The Professor

I want to drive like him...smooth, calm and tactical.

[cASe SenSiTive]

Strange photo this

Prost in Senna's helmet?

[vietlol]

Wasnt it in the Senna movie that Prost borrowed his helmet once for testing or some shit

[MrBucket]

Prost in Senna's helmet?

yep, way too big a nose to be in that helmet

[Redliner]

I didn't even realize the disconnect between the helmet and Prost.

[Skyliner]

Trulli: It is 'the end of qualifying'

By Michele Lostia and Pablo ElizaldeTuesday, May 10th 2011, 10:48 GMT

Lotus driver Jarno Trulli says the Turkish Grand Prix marked what he believes is "the end of qualifying" in Formula 1.

The degradation of Pirelli's soft tyres meant several drivers decided to do just one run in qualifying in Turkey, with Ferrari's Felipe Massa even deciding to not go for a second run despite failing to set a time in his first one.

Several other drivers decided to compromise their qualifying position in order to have a new set of tyres for the race.

Trulli believes the evidence from Turkey suggests qualifying has changed completely.

The Italian, writing in his column for Repubblica newspaper, also reckons the 2011 rules have had mixed effects, with the races being more spectacular but also more confusing.

"Like everything in life, the 2011 changes in F1 have some pros and cons," Trulli wrote.

"The pros are more exciting and spectacular races, which the public seem to like; the cons are grands prix that are a bit less comprehensible and, since Istanbul, what I call 'the end of qualifying.'

"For the first time this year we've seen that, once Q3 is reached, instead of trying to snatch pole position off the others like they always do, drivers and teams preferred to make their calculations and just be content.

"The truth is that strategy this year has a more decisive role than usual. Here at Istanbul, for example, the race started before the race itself by saving tyres. As I've always said, everyone's mission at this time is to learn the Pirellis. Well, after three races we finally have an initial and reliable measure of the level of tyre degradation.

"So, whoever had the capability and the strength to save a set of tyres on Saturday did just that. This thing obviously involved the drivers that made the top ten. As soon as they made the Q2 cut, they started to make their calculations. For many the problem was whether to utilize or not the remaining set of tyres. The ones that got into Q3 by a whisker, the outsiders, didn't even try.

"The top guys set the laptime then stopped. The others, the ones who usually animate the fight, did one try and quit at the first mistake. Some feel a formula that worked has been ruined. I don't want to say that. I simply observe that these are the rules and the drivers have adapted to them.

"There are pros and cons, I repeat: the pros are better races decided in the last 10-15 laps depending on the strategies and the tyres, while the cons are that qualifying is less spectacular and more tactical."

[DrDickAction]

I kinda agree with him. seeing Seb and Web jump out of their cars with 5 minutes to go was pretty awesome, but will get irritating if it becomes the norm.

[TimzSI]

Can't Pirreli just increase the number of tires available throughout quali? Wouldn't that alleviate the, "race started yesterday" mind set?