Patronise F1

The inaugural season of the GP3 Series produced plenty of spectacular racing from a packed grid of young hopefuls looking to impress the watching GP2 and F1 bosses. But one man stood head and shoulders above his peers in 2010.

Overview

The inaugural GP3 Series featured a capacity 30 car grid, and resulted in the sort of predictable and entertaining chaos that you would expect from that sort of packed pool of young drivers unleashed in small but nimble Dallara-Renault machines. And yet, throughout all of the carnage and action, you found yourself questioning whether any of it was really necessary.

The GP3 Series was introduced in 2010, and along with the debut in 2009 of the FIA-backed Formula Two series, seemed to be another feeder series where none was really required. The impact of the new series in the prestigious F1-supporting slot was immediately felt by other series.

The F3 Euroseries, won in recent years by the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Paul di Resta, Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg, has lapsed to grid sizes of 13 or worse at times this season, while the International Formula Master championship was mothballed before the start of the season through a lack of interest. Even the fellow F1-supporting Formula BMW Europe championship has seen potential drivers and teams move to the GP3 series instead, though admittedly that championship is due to be wound up at the end of the season anyway.

There was nothing especially wrong with the GP3 Series then, indeed the packed grids and close racing made a lot of things right with it, but it did seem to be somewhat unnecessary.

Still, that's not to say that we didn't learn a lot from the inaugural season. The emergence of Esteban Gutierrez, Robert Wickens and Nico Muller as ones to watch for the future was welcome to see, while the GP2 Series-mirroring schedule, with reverse grids for the second race at each weekend, ensured that the order was always mixed up and hard to call. But through it all, Gutierrez proved to be head and most of his shoulders clear of the pack.

After a slightly circumspect start at the opening round in Spain, where he took a pair of third places and saw his ART team mate Alex Rossi assume an early lead in the championship, Gutierrez eased into the lead, picking up three wins and a further podium in the next six races to establish himself clear of the pack. Some of these weren't just the sort of mad, close-run victories you expect from spec formulae. He won the Turkey feature race by over ten seconds.

By the midway point of the season he was already a champion-elect, with more than double the points of his nearest rival, and although he only took two further wins in the final eight races, it was a controlled, almost Button-in-2009-esque accumulation of the points that he needed, staying out of trouble rather than throwing away the championship by getting involved in silly incidents.

He eventually took the title in slightly anti-climactic style. Needing two points from the final weekend to be assured of the crown, he secured those pair of points with pole position for the feature race. The title decided, he then turned in one of his greatest performances of the year to come through a dramatic slipstreaming fight with four other cars to take his final win of the year. First he took the title, then he showed why he had.

The championship also helped to open up a whole new avenue for teams to join the F1 paddock party, with a few doubtless eyeing up a move to GP2 for next year, with the team 'franchises' on that grid coming up for renewal over the summer. In GP3 we saw some experienced GP2 hands from ART, Addax and Arden (the latter a joint venture between Christian Horner's team and Mark Webber) mix it with F1 feeder squad Manor Racing (complete with dinky Virgin F1-apeing livery) and GP2 hopefuls Tech 1 Racing, Status Grand Prix and Jenzer Motorsport.

As for where the GP3 Series goes from here after its successful start in 2010, that will, as with all feeder series lower down on the calendar, depend on the calibre of driver it produces. If Gutierrez, Rossi, Wickens and the like continue to show promise in whatever they end up doing next season, then the fledgling championship will gain vital credibility. If they flop, then it will go down as just another meaningless feeder series that nobody really asked for.

The 2010 GP3 Awards

- Driver of the Season
Esteban Gutierrez - Difficult to really give this award to anyone else. Although his awful Spa weekend, coupled with a late-season run of mercurial form by Robert Wickens, left his eventual winning margin in the championship looking less impressive than you might have predicted it would be at the midway point of the season, Gutierrez was nevertheless the star of the GP3 Series, taking three pole positions, winning five times and scoring a further four podium finishes in the sixteen rounds of the season.

He was doubtless helped by running with the form team of F1's feeder series, but with a car and championship that was new to everyone it was Gutierrez who proved his worth. The rumour mill has potentially linked him with a Sauber drive for next season, he already has a contract with the team and will drive for them at the season-ending young driver test, but realistically his 2011 season will probably involve a testing role with the Swiss outfit, possibly coupled with a GP2 Series assault with ART.

- Team of the Season
ART Grand Prix - Further evidence, as if it were needed, that Nicolas Todt's burgeoning feeder series team is head and shoulders above their rivals. Just as they had done in GP2, they hit the ground running with a new car, and in a hugely competitive championship full of young talent, they finished some 44 points ahead of their nearest rivals in the teams championship. They also managed to get at least one of their drivers on the top step of the podium at all but one of the rounds.

It almost seems a shame that the ART Formula One bid for the 13th grid slot collapsed, despite the accusations of nepotism that would doubtless have resulted from the current FIA president's son getting the spot. But their reasons for their withdrawal from the race for the F1 grid, namely that they couldn't guarantee that they would have the time or budget to be successful, shows that ART live up to the adage that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing properly.

- Unsung Hero of Season
Robert Wickens - Always the bridesmaid, never the bride could well be the Canadian's family motto. Twelve months after finishing second to Andy Soucek in the inaugural Formula Two championship, he again adapted quickly to a brand new car design, and again finished just short of winning the title.

He had a dire run of mid-season form to blame for his eventual inability to challenge Gutierrez. Between round three and round eight, he scored just 10 points. In the same period, the Mexican champion scored 34. Nevertheless, he rallied well in the second half of the season, winning three times, finishing second twice and only missing out on a points finish in a single race. While Canada's last F1 star continues to make headlines in his efforts to get back onto the grid, perhaps it is time for Canada to get behind their next potential F1 star instead.

- Failure of the Season
Mirko Bortolotti - After failing in the Formula Two series last year, occasional Ferrari tester, Red Bull-emblazoned talent and all-round Italian man Bortolotti faced a decisive 2010 season. Making what was seen as a step down from F2 to GP3 meant that he placed himself at the mercy of his own results in deciding whether or not he has a future as a proper racing driver.

Alas, the results simply didn't materialise. A podium in the final sprint race of the season at Monza, his only top three finish of the season, moved him up into the top ten in the final standings, but that disguised a somewhat dismal campaign that saw him struggle to escape the gravitational pull of the lower midfield at most weekends. Where this leaves his stalling career remains to be seen.

- Race Weekend of the Season
Spa Francorchamps - The confusing Belgian weather ensured that the Spa weekend was one of surreal carnage in the GP3 ranks. Gutierrez failed to score a point as the conditions caught him and many other frontrunners out, the feature race saw just two racing laps with all the safety cars that were needed, including one required when virtually the entire field spun off at a suddenly sodden La Source. Wickens ended up taking the chequered flag, despite damaging his car badly in his La Source spin, benefiting from slowing up the field after the safety car pulled in to ensure that the 30 minute time limit was reached before another racing lap was possible.

The sprint race saw equally chaotic scenes, with a mid-race rain shower sending everyone but the backmarking Adrien Tambay into the pits for wet tyres. The Frenchman stayed out on slicks, tip-toeing around the soaked circuit, and just as he looked destined to be overwhelmed by the wet tyred drivers, a dry line appeared and he was able to coast to victory. A suitably surreal weekend at a truly crazy circuit.

Season Results

Drivers Championship

Teams Championship