GP2 2008 Line-Up

[Driverdb]

All GP2 champions so far has gone directly to Formula 1. Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and now Timo Glock.

Now the battle for the available seats and the raising of the enormous cash involved (if you're not in an F1 junior development program) is in progress.

The confirmed line-up for the 2008 season (stay tuned for updates):

* = rookies

Trust Team Arden
Sebastien Buemi, Switzerland (2007 F3 Euroseries runner-up)
* Yelmer Buurman, Netherlands (6th in F3 Euroseries 2007)

ART Grand Prix
* Romain Grosjean, France (2007 F3 Euroseries champion)
Luca Filippi, Italy (4th in 2007)

BCN Competition
* Paolo Maria Nocera, Italy (2007 Italian F3 champion)
* Milos Pavlovic, Serbia (3rd in World Series by Renault 2007)

Campos Grand Prix
Vitaly Petrov, Russia (13th in 2007)
* Ben Hanley, Great Britain (2nd in World Series by Renault 2007)

DAMS
* Kamui Kobayashi, Japan (4th in F3 Euroseries 2007. 2005 European and Italian Formula Renault champion. Toyota Development Driver).
* Jérôme D'Ambrosio, Belgium (2007 International Formula Master champion)

David Price Racing
???
???

Durango
* Alberto Valerio, Brazil (8th in British F3 2007. 2005 South American F3 champion)
* Davide Valsecchi, Italy (16th in World Series by Renault 2007)

FMS International
Adrian Valles, Spain (2007 Spyker F1 test driver)
???

iSport International
Bruno Senna, Brazil (8th in 2007)
Karun Chandhok, India (15th in 2007)

Minardi Piquet Sports
Andreas Zuber, Austria (9th in 2007)
Pastor Maldonado, Venezuela (11th in 2007)

Racing Engineering
Giorgio Pantano, Italy (3rd in 2007)
Javier Villa, Spain (6th in 2007)

Super Nova International
* Alvaro Parente, Portugal (2007 World Series by Renault champion)
Christian Bakkerud, Denmark (no points in 2007)

Trident Racing
Mike Conway, Great Britain (14th in 2007)
Ho-Pin Tung, China (24th in 2007)

[Driverdb]

The final 2007 test (and the final tests with the old cars) were carried out at Paul Ricard in late October / early November.

A bunch of GP2 regulars and some of the most promising young talents did laps along with all the regular not-so-talented-but-with-wallets.


The following people tested at Paul Ricard:

Mikhail Aleshin, Russia
Kasper Andersen, Denmark
Nathan Antunes, Australia
Vladimir Arabadzhiev, Bulgaria
Christian Bakkerud, Denmark
Sebastien Buemi, Switzerland
Recardo Bruins Choi, Netherlands
Yelmer Buurman, Netherlands
Adrian Campos jr, Spain
Carun Chandhok, India
Dani Clos, Spain
Mike Conway, Great Britain
Fabrizio Crestani, Italy
Maximo Cortes, Spain
Jerome D'Ambrosio, Belgium
Simona de Silvestro, Switzerland
Maro Engel, Germany
Luca Filippi, Italy
Borja Garcia, Spain
Romain Grosjean, France
Ben Hanley, Great Britain
Michael Herck, Germany
Carlos Iaconelli, Italy
Oliver Jarvis, Great Britain
Stephen Jelley, Great Britain
Henri Karjalainen, Finland
Jonathan Kennard, Great Britian
Adam Khan, Great Britain
Kamui Kobayashi, Japan
Nicolas Lapierre, France
Pastor Maldonado, Venezuela
Marcos Martinez, Spain
Celso Miguez, Spain
Kazuki Nakajima, Japan
Markus Niemelä, Finland
Paolo Maria Nocera, Italy
Diego Nunes, Brazil
Alejandro Nunez, Spain
Vitaly Petrov, Russia
Giacomo Piccini, Italy
Matteo Puglisi, Italy
Davide Rigon, Italy
Manuel Saez-Merino, Spain
German Sanchez, Spain
Harald Schlegelmilch, Latvia
Bruno Senna, Brazil
Andy Soucek, Spain
Ho Pin Tung, China
Alberto Valerio, Brazil
Adrian Valles, Spain
Davide Valsecchi, Italy
Carlo van Dam, Netherlands
Chris van der Drift, New Zealand
Giedo van der Garde, Netherlands
Renger van der Zande, Netherlands
Adrian Zaugg, South Africa
Andreas Zuber, Austria

Top Fives from the tests:

Day 1, morning session:
1. Andreas Zuber, Minardi Piquet Sports
2. Pastor Maldonado, iSport International
3. Luca Filippi, DPR
4. Ben Hanley, FMS International
5. Sebastien Buemi, DAMS

Day 1, afternoon
1. Andreas Zuber, Minardi Piquet Sports
2. Luca Filippi, DPR
3. Pastor Maldonado, iSport International
4. Romain Grosjean, ART Grand Prix
5. Adrian Valles, FMS International

Day 2, morning session:
1. Luca Filippi, ART Grand Prix
2. Pastor Maldonado, iSport International
3. Andreas Zuber, Campos Grand Prix
4. Andy Soucek, DPR
5. Kamui Kobayashi, DAMS

Day 2, afternoon session:
1. Luca Filippi, ART Grand Prix
2. Andreas Zuber, Campos Grand Prix
3. Sebastien Buemi, Arden International
4. Andy Soucek, DPR
5. Vitaly Petrov, Campos Grand Prix

Day 3, morning session:
1. Andreas Zuber, Super Nova
2. Pastor Maldonado, Minardi Piquet Sports
3. Luca Filippi, Super Nova
4. Kazuki Nakajima, ART Grand Prix
5. Adrian Valles, iSport International

Day 3, afternoon session:
1. Andreas Zuber, Super Nova
2. Pastor Maldonado, Minardi Piquet Sports
3. Romain Grosjean, Racing Engineering
4. Adrian Zaugg, BCN Competition
5. Kazuki Nakajima, ART Grand Prix

[Driverdb]

Durango is the team who's first to confirm both seats for 2008:

Alberto Valerio from Brazil and Davide Valsecchi from Italy. Two rookies and, if I may say so, probably not the most impressive pair on the 2008 grid. Valerio's pretty quick but his British F3 record isn't very impressive. Valsecchi won a race in World Series this season but still only managed to finish 16th in the championship, he's quite young though so there is room for improvement.

[JoelManiac]

Is there still that many gaps in he driver line up? :confused:

Its great to see any Aussie in the testing there.:thumbsup:

[Driverdb]

Is there still that many gaps in he driver line up? :confused:

Yeah, the GP2 grid doesn't start to fill up quickly until more or less every race and test seat in F1 is filled and then the drivers who aimed for F1, but didn't make it this year comes along with their big bags of money.

But there are probably several seats already filled but with no official word yet.

[JoelManiac]

So is there any rush to get drivers when it gets close to race 1?

[Driverdb]

So is there any rush to get drivers when it gets close to race 1?

I'd say the good GP2 seats will be filled early next year and then there might be some last minute swaps before the first race in the not-so-good seats when people find out that perhaps they couldn't raise the required money.

The best seats will probably be split between the F1 development drivers.

[Driverdb]

The good seats are starting to fill up now.

[Driverdb]

With Paolo Maria Nocera signed for BCN there's now 13 seats yet to be filled.

The following people from last year's season are currently not in GP2 seats:

Adam Carroll
Andreas Zuber
Giorgio Pantano
Borja Garcia
Pastor Maldonado
Nicolas Lapierre
Andy Soucek
Adrian Zaugg
Kohei Hirate
Alexandre Negrao
Marcos Martinez
Sergio Jimenez
Ricardo Risatti
Ho Pin Tung
Filipe Albuquerque
Christian Bakkerud (signed for GP2 Asia though)
Henri Karjalainen
Markus Niemelä
Oliver Pla
Jason Tahinci
Ernesto Viso
Sakon Yamamoto

[Aussie]

I hope the GP2 series will be interesting in 2008 and beyond! its a very exciting series.

I really hope Nathan Antunes can get a seat. Is there Any chance of him getting a seat?

[Driverdb]

I really hope Nathan Antunes can get a seat. Is there Any chance of him getting a seat?

I guess it depends on his sponsors.

But I think GP2 would be a bit too soon for him. Perhaps he should think of a season in F3 Euroseries first.

[Aussie]

I guess it depends on his sponsors.

But I think GP2 would be a bit too soon for him. Perhaps he should think of a season in F3 Euroseries first.



he is actually in a problem at the moment coz he has no sponers.... which is sad because he is very talented.

[Aussie]

Here are all the sources for the gp2 drivers signings for the 2008 season to date.

Kobayashi Joins DAMS: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/11/23/kobayashi-joins-dams/

Valerio Joins Durango: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/10/valerio-joins-durango-for-2008-seasons/

Grosjean Signs with ART: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/11/grosjean-joins-gp2/

Valsecchi joins Durango: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/13/valsecchi-joins-durango/

D'Ambrosio signs with DAMS: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/14/d-ambrosio-joins-dams/

Filippi Joins ART: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/17/filippi-joins-art-grand-prix/

Senna and Chandok joins iSport: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/19/senna-and-chandhok-join-isport/

Conway joins trident: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/20/conway-joins-trident-racing/

Bakkerud signs with Super Nova: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/20/bakkerud-joins-super-nova/

ART signs Jelley: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/21/art-signs-jelley-for-2008/

Valles makes GP2 return with FMS: http://gp2.gpupdate.net/en/news/2007/12/21/valles-returns-to-gp2/

Paolo Maria Nocera joins BCN: http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=277107&FS=GP2

To Be Continued with the lastest headlines and Rumours.

[Blazing Lion]

All GP2 champions so far has gone directly to Formula 1. Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and now Timo Glock.

Now the battle for the available seats and the raising of the enormous cash involved (if you're not in an F1 junior development program) is in progress.

The confirmed line-up for the 2008 season (stay tuned for updates):

* = rookies

Arden International
Sebastien Buemi, Switzerland (2007 F3 Euroseries runner-up)
???

ART Grand Prix
* Romain Grosjean, France (2007 F3 Euroseries champion)
Luca Filippi, Italy (4th in 2007)

BCN Competition
* Paolo Maria Nocera, Italy (2007 Italian F3 champion)
???

Campos Grand Prix
Vitaly Petrov, Russia (13th in 2007)
???

DAMS
* Kamui Kobayashi, Japan (4th in F3 Euroseries 2007. 2005 European and Italian Formula Renault champion. Toyota Development Driver).
* Jérôme D'Ambrosio, Belgium (2007 International Formula Master champion)

David Price Racing
???
???

Durango
* Alberto Valerio, Brazil (8th in British F3 2007. 2005 South American F3 champion)
* Davide Valsecchi, Italy (16th in World Series by Renault 2007)

FMS International
Adrian Valles, Spain (2007 Spyker F1 test driver)
???

iSport International
Bruno Senna, Brazil (8th in 2007)
Karun Chandhok, India (15th in 2007)

Minardi Piquet Sports
???
???

Racing Engineering
Javier Villa, Spain (6th in 2007)
???

Super Nova International
???
???

Trident Racing
Mike Conway, Great Britain (14th in 2007)
???
Thanks for the line up info.

[Driverdb]

10 seats available now....

[Blazing Lion]

DPR has confirmed Indian driver Armaan Ebrahim for the GP2 Asia Series.Last year he competed in FormulaV6 Asia and finished runner up in the overall championship.

[DarkLord]

I am not sure about him..

he really screwed up in A1 GP for team india.

[Driverdb]

According to Italiaracing.net Racing Engineering is close to signing Giorgio Pantano for the main series. The seat will then be paid for by RE's sponsors. It just wouldn't be GP2 without Pantano teaching the young ones some well deserved lessons. It's also nice to see a driver actually getting paid for racing in GP2, not just selling their relatives to afford a seat.

He's had five wins in his three seasons and has ended up 6th, 5th and last year 3rd in the series.

And some of you might remember him from his brief stint in F1 with Jordan in 2004 and two races in IRL in 2005 (qualified 2nd and ended 4th at Watkins Glen) for Chip Ganassi.

[Harakimi]

I reallly thought that he would switch series, he is almost 30. :)
I remember he was driving F3000's at some point and that is 1000 years ago.

[Driverdb]

I reallly thought that he would switch series, he is almost 30. :)
I remember he was driving F3000's at some point and that is 1000 years ago.

Yeah, but I was sort of hoping he would stay. It's like the good old days of F3 and F2 when it wasn't just the teenagers racing but also the older guys who for some reason or the other hadn't made the final step to F1. Now it's more like if you're older than 25 and not in F1, IRL, Champ Car or Formula Nippon already you will have to race GT's or Sportscars because you're too old for single seaters.

[Driverdb]

Super Nova has signed the 2007 World Series by Renault champion Alvaro Parente and Spaniard Roldan Rodrigues for the GP2 series. A pretty decent lineup in my book. :)

[Driverdb]

Only three and a half seats left now (with the half being Pantano's sort of confirmation at Racing Engineering).

The DPR team seems to be for sale and the rumoured buyer is the father of Michael Herck, who currently races in GP2 Asia for Fisichella. If he ends up in DPR there may be some changes in the GP2 Asia lineup as well as people would need to move around a bit.

[Driverdb]

Giorgio Pantano has now been confirmed at Racing Engineering and is definitely a championship contender.

This leaves only three seats still available. One at Fisichella Motorsport and two at David Price Racing.

[Mekola]

Musical chairs could play in GP2 Asia for next round at Sentul, according to late driver movements.
-There were increasing rumours that Herck family could land to DPR, and if they do it, Michael Herck could left FMSI immediatly to join David Price's team.
- Andy Soucek would step to the other way, because he has just signed with FMSI for GP2 Series, but he might not race for the rest of the Asia season.
- FMSI vacant could be filled by Diego Nunes, who would left Campos in favour to give place for another well-known RDD driver, Ben Hanley.

[JoStream]

Giorgio Pantano has now been confirmed at Racing Engineering and is definitely a championship contender.

Pantano should not be driving GP2 anymore. Even if he cannot get into Formula 1, I have doubt that staying in the GP2 is a wise career decision :wonder:

[Driverdb]

Pantano should not be driving GP2 anymore. Even if he cannot get into Formula 1, I have doubt that staying in the GP2 is a wise career decision :wonder:

He's getting paid to drive in a top single seater series. I can't see that many better options really. :)

[Driverdb]

Now Super Nova has signed Christian Bakkerud for the main series as well. I guess Roldan Rodriguez had to move over for some reason.... perhaps he will end up at DPR?