The star of the season so far has been Patty favourite, former Jordan F1 driver Giorgio Pantano. “Pants” may be his nickname, but it certainly isn’t a reflection on his ability, with his 4 victories already this season making him the class of the (slightly below-par) field. Interestingly, all of the Italian’s victories have come in the Saturday afternoon feature race (including the last 3 on the trot), for which the grid is decided on merit, and not by the merry-go-round that is reversing the top 8 of the previous day’s race. Despite his success (he leads the championship by 15 points), he is highly unlikely to find a way back into Formula 1.
The same cannot be said for Bruno Senna, the nephew of the late great Ayrton of course. Senna has taken 2 victories this season, both of which have led to inevitable comparisons with his uncle, for they came in the feature race in Monaco (where Ayrton took 6 wins in F1) and in the rain of Silverstone (with so many of Ayrton’s victories coming in wet conditions). With Sebastian Vettel graduating to Red Bull’s F1 team, the space at Toro Rosso could be filled by the Brazilian.
None of the other drivers have managed to win more than a single race, which shows just how competitive F1’s premier feeder series is. Romain Grosjean, test driver for Renault’s F1 team, has shown great speed on many occasions, but consecutive pointless weekends at Monaco and Magny Cours have seriously hampered his title ambitions.
Behind the top 3, just 8 points separate 7 drivers. At the front of that group is Lucas di Grassi, the form man in GP2 at the moment with three second places, a 4th and a 5th in the last 6 races (with Pastor Maldonado punting him out in the other). Sadly for him, they are the only six races he’s entered this season, and it’s clear that the Brazilian is highly talented.
Sebastien Buemi is another young talent, aged just 19, who is hotly tipped to be in the running for a seat in F1 in the near future. The Swiss driver scored an excellent victory in the sprint race at Magny Cours and is definitely one to watch. Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Karun Chandhok have all taken victories (from a reverse grid pole in the sprint race), but Conway and more so Chandhok have shown pace on numerous occasions.
The only other driver to win a race has been Portugal’s Alvaro Parente, who triumphed in the very first race of his GP2 career in Spain, and has visited the podium on two further occasions. Down the order, a major disappointment has been Honda tester Luca Filippi. So bad was he that ART decided to replace him with former Super Aguri and Spyker pilot Sakon “Admiral” Yamamoto for the Hockenheim round. Filippi must be sleeping with Christian Horner however, who offered him a lifeline drive at Arden…resulting in a double retirement in Germany.
The success of Senna and Chandhok has put iSport at the head of the team standings, 6 points clear of Pantano’s Racing Engineering outfit. Giancarlo Fisichella’s FMS team are having about as much success as he is with Force India this year, ranking 10th in the standings.
So there are just four weekends remaining in the 2008 series, with the GP2 mob stalking the F1 circus to Budapest, Valencia, Spa and Monza. Pantano’s lead in the Championship makes him strong favourite for the title, but with 8 races to go (as well as points for pole and fastest lap at stake) anything could still happen. What seems certain though is that at least a couple of the drivers on the grid will be following the likes of Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock into the big league.
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