GP2 is entering its ninth year. Seven previous champions have now driven in Formula 1, with three of those going on to win at least one Grand Prix. Yet, there’s something of a dark mist lingering over the series. Although it was a championship originally conceived to prepare and produce the next crop of F1 stars, it appears to have run aground in recent seasons. The previous two champions haven’t progressed their single-seater careers any further, while the 2013 top three are now all racing sports cars.
What’s going wrong? Well, there’s now certainly plenty of evidence to suggest that Formula 1 is starting to bypass its once flourishing feeder series:
Big teams playing it safe
One cause for concern is the lack of willingness shown by Formula 1 teams in recruiting GP2 graduates, with the most notorious example of this undoubtedly being Davide Valsecchi’s short lived career with Lotus.
After winning the 2012 GP2 title for DAMS, Valsecchi spent much of the following year sitting in the Lotus F1 garage collecting data and virtually doing everything except racing. He finally caught a glimpse of a race drive towards the end of the season, after Kimi Raikkonen was hit by an injury before dramatically splitting from the team over missing salary payments.
The door was gaping open for Valsecchi to stroll through and it looked as though he would get the F1 drive that he had been relentlessly preparing for and undoubtedly deserved, but at the last minute it was slammed shut on him as Lotus made the decision to run Caterham test driver Heikki Kovalainen for the remaining two races instead. The change of mind seemed to send a clear message that Lotus was unprepared to send out their GP2 affiliate, and the Italian was visibly disappointed when he spoke to ESPN at the US Grand Prix, commenting:
“I was sure that from the point of view of motivation and desire to achieve, the team would have taken me and I would have been right up there. Perhaps I lack experience but what chance do you have to gain any?”
GP2 graduates don’t want to test F1 cars as a career, they want to race them. It’s the reason they enter the series in the first place: to get an F1 seat. New, hungry drivers like Valsecchi certainly bring a fresh desire to F1 and a willingness to take risks while racing which is what, according to some fans, the sport desperately needs. Instead, costs for replacement and repair are extortionate for the majority of the grid, meaning the manufacturers prefer to keep their cars fully intact.
So, the racing is somewhat restricted as constructors remain conservative in their approach to run more experienced drivers and keep their machinery intact.
F1’s loss, WEC’s gain with GP2
But, while Formula 1 manufacturers leave GP2 competitors on the shelf, another series and set of teams picks them up. The World Endurance Championship has been in operation since 2012 and despite having (ever so slightly) slower cars; it has attracted some of single-seater racing’s brightest talents. One of those is Sam Bird, who experienced several years testing for McLaren but never managed to make a race start. The 2013 GP2 runner-up commented on the issue at the WEC’s opening race at Silverstone last month, where he made his series debut with Ferrari’s works GT outfit:
“The thing is, if you’re in Formula One, unless you come with a huge budget you’re not going to drive the car. So, this [WEC] is a great example of being able to give young talent a drive, a chance and an opportunity and thankfully AF Corse have offered me that. In the WEC this year you find the top three in 2013 GP2 getting top world championship drives in a world championship event.”
Bird doesn’t seem too disappointed. Although clearly one of Britain’s finest (and possibly most underrated) open-wheel drivers, he is willing to accept that perhaps a Formula 1 berth won’t come to everyone. Two of his rivals from last year, James Calado and champion Fabio Leimer may not be in the seats currently occupied by Kvyat and Magnussen, but when they’re at the business end of what is still a credible and prestigious FIA world championship then the complaints are sparse.
Talent not enough to progress
Many drivers, however talented they are, reach a roadblock once they become ready for the step up to Formula 1, with cost being the major preventative issue (as expressed by Bird). After years of toiling through the junior formulae, it’s money that ultimately decides where the young racing stars go next. If a driver cannot offer a large enough sum, then their talent will be enjoyed elsewhere, which in a sense defeats the object of Formula 1 as the championship that showcases the world’s best drivers.
Formula 1 team finances are often circling around the £200 million mark nowadays, while the top LMP1 manufacturers in the WEC tend to spend about half that figure. The monetary demands set by F1 teams are out of reach for many GP2 drivers, leaving them in limbo as to where their funds can take them.
It’s for this reason that GP2 isn’t quite achieving what it set out to do, albeit through no fault of its own: it’s simply F1 economics being unkind to the drivers who fall a few hundred thousand short of the budget expectations, and it’s the difference between a career in Formula 1 and a career elsewhere.
GP2 is still clinging on as Formula 1’s younger sibling but, with other series like Formula Renault and Auto GP, the future is becoming increasingly uncertain. Will the 2014 GP2 champion be a part of Formula 1 next year, or will they slip into a testing role that eventually leads to a transfer to another championship? The ever-increasing influx of young and hungry drivers who want to race in Formula 1 means that the driver market is now becoming choked with their collective clamour for support. Therefore, it’s unclear for the F1 manufacturers to identify where the real talent lies. And, at the moment, they don’t believe GP2 is the answer.
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