Patronise F1

The Background

The GP2 Asia Series enters it's third year of competition after being born out of a combined desire to both promote motor racing in the Asian region as well as find something to do with the old, outdated spec Dallara chassis from the main GP2 Series. Initially, the championship offered incentives for teams to run at least one Asian driver (though both Turkey and Russia were included on the list acceptable countries), and the season flowed throughout the winter months in Europe, visiting China, Dubai, Qatar, Malaysia and Bahrain.

But this year, the series is feeling the crippling grip of the global economic nastiness. No team has announced an Asian-born driver in their line-ups, and the field has already lost the cash-strapped Durango team from the grid, leaving them down at 24 cars (all the current GP2 Series teams, with the Malaysian QI Meritus team replacing Racing Engineering). The calendar is barely worthy of the name, being a pared-down list of four race meetings, two at the Abu Dhabi street track and two at Sakhir track in Bahrain. Aside from the lucrative opening and closing rounds supporting Formula One, with (somewhat confusingly) the series opener at this weekend's 2009 F1 swansong and the GP2 Asia finale at the 2010 F1 season's opening race, the schedule features just two more race weekends.

Furthermore, there is a half-hearted look to the grid, with some teams throwing together experienced but largely average GP2 runners, and other hot prospects looking to the series to provide little more than some in-depth testing time in preparation for their moves to the main GP2 Series in 2010.

With the economic failure of the last year or so causing more than a few problems for a number of other series, A1GP is on the brink of collapse and even historically strong championships like British F3 have seen a rather slender grid size this year, the struggled of GP2 Asia should perhaps not be rather surprising. But this will be a season of treading water for the championship, hoping to be able to come back stronger next winter. And to be honest, if they come back any weaker, they may as well not come back at all.

Despite all that, the series still does have some pedigree. Both former champions have raced in F1 this season, so despite the dubious depth of quality on display, the cream should still rise to the top, and the action is likely to be reassuringly frantic, with the Asia Series still using the old 2005-2007-spec GP2 car, which always seemed to allow for better racing than the overly-aerodynamic current Dallara-Renault machine.

Past Champions

2008 - Drivers Champion: Romain Grosjean, Teams Champion: ART Grand Prix.
2008/09 - Drivers Champion: Kamui Kobayashi, Teams Champion: DAMS.

Runners and Riders (List correct at time of publishing)

DAMS - Edoardo Piscopo (Ita) / Christian Vietoris (Ger)
The DAMS team were the surprise dominant force in the Asia series last year, with sometime Toyota F1 driver Kamui Kobayashi taking the title. But this year, they may well struggle. Piscopo has struggled to impose himself on the new F2 series this year, finishing 11th in the final standings, while Vietoris has been soundly beaten by Jules Bianchi in the F3 Euroseries. He does have a German Formula BMW title under his belt though, so clearly has enough talent to be able to pull out the odd good performance.

Piquet GP - Vladimir Arabadzhiev (Bul) / Daniel Zampieri (Ita)
The Piquet team have a hodge-podge of drivers in their seats for this year. Arabadzhiev has achieved little of not in a litany of minor formulae, most recently finishing an underwhelming 7th in the staggeringly unnecessary International Formula Master series this year, while Zampieri could be one to watch, having secured the 2009 Italian F3 championship, though admittedly that series isn't the force it once was.

Barwa Addax Team - Max Chilton (Gbr) / Luiz Razia (Bra)
The Addax team, who enjoyed success with Vitaly Petrov and Romain Grosjean in this year's main GP2 Series, has a slightly more underwhelming combination of drivers for the Asia series. Chilton, brother of BTCC race winner Tom, is progressing up the motorsport ladder at a prodigious rate (he is still only 18), but he is managing it without really impressing especially. Two wins were the highlight of an inconsistent British F3 season this year, and he has been linked, somewhat implausibly, with a Manor F1 seat for 2010. Razia, meanwhile, endured a tough GP2 series campaign with Coloni (neé Fisichella Motorsport), but managed an unlikely victory in the reverse grid sprint race at Monza, to show that he has some potential at least.

ART Grand Prix - Sam Bird (Gbr) / Marcus Ericsson (Swe) / Jules Bianchi (Fra)
The 2008 GP2 Asia champions and crack GP2 team ART have rather counterintuitively signed up three drivers for their two seats in the team for this winter. But it's an impressive list of potential future F1 talent. Bianchi won the 2009 F3 Euroseries with the team by a crushing margin, and he will share driving duties in one car with Ericsson, who triumphed in this year's Japanese F3 championship. With neither completing a full campaign, they won't be in the championship fight, but both will be looking for full-time drives with the squad in GP2 next season. In the other seat, Sam Bird hasn't exactly flown (chortle) in the Euroseries this season, but was a race winner in British F3.

Arden International - Charles Pic (Fra) / Rodolfo González (Ven)
The run of three straight F3000 teams titles from 2002-2004 seem a long way away for Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner's Arden team, who have struggled to keep up with the pace in GP2. Pic finished third in the 2009 World Series by Renault standings, winning twice along the way, and will be looking to get some GP2 experience ahead of a full championship season in 2010. Gonzalez, meanwhile, has achieved little of note in his career thus far, but after bit-part roles with struggling teams in last year's GP2 Asia series and this year's GP2 series, this will be his first chance to impress in a big name team.

Super Nova Racing - James Jakes (Gbr) / Josef Kral (Cze)
Super Nova are another former F3000 frontrunner (they won five teams championships in the space of six years from 1995-2000) struggling to find consistent form in GP2. Jakes raced for the team in the 2008-09 Asia Series, and did such a good job (i.e. secured one podium finish and nothing else) that he did literally nothing throughout the rest of 2009. Kral meanwhile, who sounds a bit like he should be fighting the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, has spent the last two years in Formula Master, winning three races and finishing 3rd overall this year. He'll probably be quite average.

iSport International - Oliver Turvey (Gbr) / Davide Valsecchi (Ita)
iSport, the team that won the main series in 2007 with Timo Glock, have a mix of rookie youthfulness and dependable experience for this year's Asia series. Turvey raced in the World Series by Renault this year, ending 4th in the points after picking up a win and four other podiums, and will race for the team in the main GP2 Series in 2010. Valsecchi has won two races across both GP2 series since 2008, though suffered a rather insipid season in 2009, taking a podium for Durango and doing very little when drafted into the Barwa Addax team when Grosjean moved into F1.

Trident Racing - Plamen Kralev (Bul) / Johnny Cecotto, Jr. (Ven)
Trident's signing of Kralev in one of their race seats represents a new low not just for the GP2 Asia Series, but perhaps for motorsport in general. Kralev is an amateur driver, 36 years of age and a businessman by day. With a background of racing GT cars quite slowly already under his belt, and a glacially slow pre-season set of testing times, Kralev looks set to add a touch of farce to this season's championship. In the other seat, things don't get much better for the team, Cecotto Jr achieved the dubious distinction of eliminating himself from last season's Portuguese feature race by crashing in the pit lane on his way to the dummy grid.

Team QI Meritus - Luca Filippi (Ita) / Diego Nunes (Bra)
The Meritus team are the only GP2 Asia-only team, who take the place of Racing Engineering every year because they can't be bothered with it. Signing annual GP2 failure Luca Filippi may well seem like a silly move, but shockingly Filippi topped the times at both days of the recent pre-season test at the Yas Marina track, and may just be a dark horse for the championship, though he'll probably find some way of messing it up. Nunes, meanwhile, managed two wins in the Asia Series last year, but went on to accomplish very little in his second season of GP2 Series competition with iSport.

Ocean Racing Technology - Fabio Leimer (Swi) / Alexander Rossi (Usa)
Ocean Racing have opted for a pair of International Formula Master drivers for their lineup. Leimer is the hottest Swiss racing driver prospect since Sebastien Buemi first chuckled his way onto the scene, having dominated Formula Master last year with seven wins and 12 fastest laps across the 16 rounds, though how much of that was down to the crap talent level in that series remains to be seen. Rossi, meanwhile, is a rare type of American driver that seems comfortable with both left and right turns. After winning various junior formulae Stateside, he switched to Formula Master for 2009 and finished 4th in the points, winning three races. With Team USF1 despairingly searching for any American driver at all for their team by 2011, Rossi will know that if he grabs attention in GP2, his progress to F1 will be inevitable.

Scuderia Coloni - Will Bratt (Gbr) / Roldán Rodríguez (Spa)
The team formerly known as Fisichella Motorsport sets off on it's first full campaign in any GP2 series with a rookie and a dutiful veteran. Bratt secured a free drive with the team as a prize for winning the impressive-sounding Euroseries 3000, which on closer inspection is a ragbag series racing old A1GP chassis, with an average grid size in single figures. Rodriguez, meanwhile, has raced in both GP2 and GP2 Asia since 2007, achieving very little. He did win a race in last winter's Asia series though, and ended third in the points. Will doggedly accumulate points for the team if the car is good enough.

DPR - Michael Herck (Rom) / Giacomo Ricci (Ita)
The traditional backmarkers of the GP2 pack return, with Herck, whose sporting pedigree can likely be ascertained from the fact that his father is the owner of the team. He will be partnered by regular DPR shoe-in Ricci, who has raced in a number of categories over the years, from GT series to the American Formula Atlantic series. His only real success, though, was winning the F3000 Euroseries back in 2006. He certainly won't be adding this particular series to that success in a DPR GP2 car.

2009-10 Series Schedule

* - Grand Prix support race

Five to Watch

1) Jules Bianchi - May not be doing a full season for ART, but then neither did Nico Hulkenburg last season, and he still won races and went on to dominate the main GP2 championship. Bianchi is a great big hope for the beleagured pride of French motorsport after losing their grand prix and witnessing the farce of Sebastien Bourdais. Will be using his two drives with the team as a test run for his debut year in GP2, but should still be quick. Plus, The Hand has already picked him out as a star of the future, and Patty writers are almost never wrong.

2) Fabio Leimer - Dominating any championship like Leimer did last year is impressive, even if it is International Formula Master. Leimer will be looking to graduate straight to GP2 next season, and it will be interesting to see how he can translate his prodigious form of 2009 into a GP2 car. Expect him to start slowly, but be right on the pace by the end of the season.

3) Luca Filippi - Regular readers of Patty's GP2 Series coverage will know The Elbow's view on Filippi. The Italian can more often than not be found messing up somewhere on the circuit no matter where he is. But after dominating pre-season testing, this might just be a chance for Filippi to restore his shambolic reputation. As a bonus for him, he's been stuck trying to make a success of GP2 for so long, he has vast experience of racing the old model car already.

4) Oliver Turvey - Of the five Brits on the GP2 Asia grid, Turvey is probably the most likely to make a go of GP2, after performing well in the Renault World Series this year, finishing fourth in the standings despite picking up only a single win, and beating his team mate, Toro Rosso's Jamie Alguersuari, in the process.

5) Plamen Kralev - A 36 year old Bulgarian businessman. In a racing car. With hilarious consequences!

On Patronise

We tried covering this last season and got bored and quietly dropped it halfway through. But surely we can keep our interest up for four rounds? Hopefully, interest levels permitting, we'll have dodgily-grammared reviews of each weekend to keep up busy over the winter months. In as much as a series that starts this weekend and then effectively goes on hiatus until February can.