Who will be the next star of Formula 1?
Is a future world champion driving in a formula far, far away or are they already moving within F1's inner circle?
The launch of the 2009 GP2 Series on the eve of the season-opening races at the Circuit de Catalunya could provide a few clues.
In its four-year history, the feeder competition has seen seven of its drivers graduate to F1, including reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton - but who's next?
Well, keep your eye on Nico Hulkenberg. The 21-year-old is making his GP2 debut this season but is already on Williams' books as their reserve driver.
The German is managed by Willi Webber, who surely knows a good driver when he sees one after guiding seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher's career.
Frenchman Romain Grosjean contests his second season in GP2 but is already a familiar race in the Renault garage. He's the team's third driver but is tipped for promotion to a future race seat.
Another one to watch is Kamui Kobayashi. The 22-year-old is Toyota's reserve driver and has already impressed by winning the GP2 Asia crown.
Hamilton was in super relaxed mood as he dropped by the GP2 paddock to dish out a few gongs to the GP2 Asia Series winners along with Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Renault principal Flavio Briatore and driver Nelson Piquet.
The Mole also bumped into the world champion's McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen.The Finn was GP2's runner-up in 2005 and reckons that gave him a leg-up into F1.
"It was so important for me," he said. "I had my management team but no-one in F1 knew if I was any good or what I could do, so fighting for the championship helped a lot.
"In GP2 you also visit a lot of the F1 circuits and race against some future F1 drivers so it really helps."
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~28~RS~)
Comments
It would be great if we could watch these great GP2 drivers on the BBC. What a novel idea that would be!...
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Agreed, I don't fancy shelling out £12.99 a month for Setanta!
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Big_will,
In Spain last year I was reduced to watching a few F1 rounds on Setanta. Boy oh boy do those guys NOT know what they're talking about. When Kimi was in an admittedly pretty good smash, the Setanta guys were talking about 'shades of Senna at Imola'. That night I saw the ITV highlights and Martin Brundle passed it off as something and nothing.
Really really poor commentary - EJ should go and get a job there :-)
Joe
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Right. GP2 is really exciting racing. The drivers are "hungrier" than those who have already made it into F1, and the series is very competitive. The last 2 years I have been to Spa-Francorchamps for the F1 Grand Prix and have watched the GP2 guys (In 2007 I was very impressed by Timo Glock, for example). In 2008 my girlfriend and I stood at the "Bus Stop" watching the action and the GP2 cars were just as much fun as the F1 cars.
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I agree with the above really. GP2 should be on BBC, not shelved out on Setanta where it'll probably only get viewing figures of 10,000.
Last year on ITV, it had 200,000.... the International Motor Sport show a few years back had 1-1.3m viewers.
Really really disappointed that the BBC are failing to provide ANY coverage whatsoever.
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'Who will be the next star of F1?' you ask Mr Mole, well unfortunately, there's no point in asking us as most people won't be able to see GP2 this year... :/
Seeing as the BBC have the rights to show all the support races, including Formula BMW, Porsche Supercup and GP2, can't you at least stream them live on your website somewhere? GP2 has a world feed commentary for qualifying and the races, so could you not quiet easily feed this through to us at home? I'd be happy to have Formula BMW and the Porsche Supercup without commentary. :)
Thanks if you can do anything for this season. If you could sort it for Monaco I'd be incredibly grateful(and impressed!). Don't worry though, I won't hold my breath. ;)
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Pre-season rumours suggested that all the support races would be on the BBC. It's a pretty sad state of affairs when the best and most popular support series is on arguably the worst pay-TV provider. Say what you like about Sky Sports but at least they put together a decent live broadcast.
It's a shame in a way that ITV didn't keep the rights to GP2, at least ITV4's awful picture quality with a blonde airhead presenting would have been better than Sentanta.
Back on subject, I'd put my money on Grosjean but for the likelihood of him replacing Piquet Jnr at Renault mid-season.
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For God's sake if you don't GP2 then there's not much point in articles like this is there?
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Yes it's disappointing that GP2 won't be shown on the BBC, it's a really exciting series and a great way for people to keep their passion for motorsport alive.
It also could've represented opportunities for other BBC employees to gain experience of motor racing. But, I guess it wasn't that important to you, so I'll just have to forget about GP2..
Shame really.
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What's the point of discussing GP2 when you've dumped the TV rights?!
You could have at least given the TV rights back to the home of GP2 - Eurosport, but no... off to Setanta. :-(
Is there no way you can at least put GP2 on the website or interactive? I hear they have an world commentary feed. Please.
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I can only echo what has already been said. Its appalling that GP2 is not being shown on the BBC. And now you do a blog about it, as if to rub it in.
So far the BBC's coverage of F1 has been brilliant, but the whole GP2 issue has spoilt it for me. Having read rumours that we were not only getting the races live, but Qualifying aswell, to suddenly having nothing its been hard to take.
And that its ended up with Setanta of all people, who probably won't be around for much longer, just adds to it. Its not like the BBC are even showing highlights which would be something.
GP2 has better and more competitive racing than F1 and should be on the BBC (if not on the red button then at least on the website). It may have gotten bad ratings on ITV4 but I'm sure it would get the exposure it deserves on the BBC and as a result those numbers would grow.
I very much hope that if nothing can be done for the rest of this season, that there is every effort made to get GP2 on BBC for 2010.
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The guys are doing a great job on-screen. DC and Martin Brundle give us a great racing perspective, Jake is doing a great job and Jonathan Legard is his normal proficient self. But a quarter of the way in let's see more of Mike Gascoigne and less of Eddie Jordan. Too many trite and self opinionated from EJ leads me to think we need a more technically knowledgeable person - and Mike G is certainly that! More more more please.
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I was looking forward to watching GP2 this year but alas it's not to be. I won't be paying for Setanta now or ever. I will be following the series using the rumoured live timing on their website and using the Autosport website too.
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Tis a shame about GP2 as more often than not where they have there accidents, (and there tend to be a few) are discussed in the F1 coverage. Would like to to see even highlights on the BBC if not able to do the full coverage. I don't think the BBC realised they had opened Pandora's Box of motor racing enthusiasts when they took on the F1. WE DEMAND TO SEE IT ALL!!!!
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Surely this is a joke. It's bad enough your not showing GP2 but your posting articles about it. Your doing a great job at covering F1, fair enough, but the fact you've turned your back on GP2, a series that's had far better racing than F1 for several years bar the past two and produced more successful drivers than I could possibly name, i.e. future F1 champions. I'd go as far to say that I am furious at how you've handled the GP2 situation. All I can say now is please get it back next year.
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Why oh why are the bbc not showing GP2!?? Along with Jonathan Legard this is a huge black mark on the BBC coverage!
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GP2? Is that on this season? Oh, I hadn't noticed given it's been pushed aside to an inferior pay-per-view broadcaster. Big mistake by the BBC, it would have complimented F1 greatly and aided in the pre-race build-up dearly.
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Will Wili Weber have found the next Schumi with Nico Hulkenberg? Will Kamui Kobayashi be able to keep us entertained like Taku did? Is Jerome D'Ambrosio the new Thierry Boutsen?(that's one for the older readers)
Sadly the answers to none of these questions will be found on the BBC this season.I have really enjoyed the F1 coverage but its a great shame the Beeb can't find somewhere for GP2 coverage. I think many many F1 fans would tune in....
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Pity, Conway and Senna lost their seats in their bid for F1 with Honda
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I am extremely disappointed at the Beeb's late decision not to air teh 2009 GP2 Series which was supposed to be part of the deal along with F1!
I understand that it has been farmed out to Setanta, a station which apparently is having financial difficulties?
I suspect I am joining a large number of people who would much prefer GP2 to be shown live or even as highlights somewhere through on the BBC network, either on the red button or maybe online?
Can anything be done, if not for the season opener, maybe for Monaco?
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Ah, the age old question of who the young star(s) will be from the lower feeder series. The coverage whilst on ITV has been good, if unspectacular to watch, aside for the racing, and I am thoroughly disappointed the BBC haven't picked this up as it would have made for good viewing on a Saturday afternoon / Sunday morning. Shoving it onto a subscription channel which doesn't show decent motorsport means it won't get the coverage it deserves - i.e. the future star youngsters of the premier motor racing series in the world. I am disappointed because the deal the FOM made with the BBC included the feeder series.
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Yes, GP2 is well worth following. Ive followed it closely along with F3 to see whos looking good and going shake up the old order in F1.
But unfortunately the only way i can follow along this year is through various websites as its not on 'free to air' tv this year. Very disappointing to hear that its not going to be on the BBC after ITV did great job with it in 2007-08.
Would of loved to hear Crofty and Ant cover this one.
So who is going to be the star of the future? dont know cos i cant watch em to see!!
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just spent half the day trying to find out about GP2 coverage for this weekend! absolutely gutted that it isn't on anywhere! if its on setanta, i'm appalled, along with many other serious racing fans, I'm sure. We need to see this action, live on a quality, preferably terrestrial channel, or at the very least, a Sky channel which is easily accessible. Please, Please, Auntie Beeb, start showing it. At the very least, show it online!!
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i hope this blog is aimed at testing the waters for when setanta go bust (in a few weeks time) and gp2 comes to the bbc.
i can only echo the previous posters' sentiments and agree wholeheartely.
im horrified to see this excellent and exciting series go to a channel that no sane man would subscribe to.
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I too am very dissapointed that the BBC is not showing GP2, especially as Setanta' motorsports coverage is lamentable and their "customer service" non-existant. I assume that since the BBC relinquished the rights they will revert to FOM when Setanta goes bust, hopefully Eurosport will pick them up if the BBC doesn't. Please change your decision if it's not too late, you have underestimated the interest in GP2.
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bbc should be providing coverage of GP2 somewere. You have gone backwards from ITV, BBC/
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Any response from Beeb about why they are not broadcasting GP2? It makes me mad that they clearly can broadcast something but choose to ship it out to a channel unwilling to show it live. =@
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What a great blog post promoting a very important feeder series - gets you all fired up and wanting to know where you can see it doesn't it?
By all accounts this was an exciting race today as well - wouldn't it have been nice for the British public to be able to see it?
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I was disappointed with GP2 last season seems the standard has dropped and Pantano winning the championship seems to prove that point, although success in GP2 does not mean the same will follow in F1 (Nelson Piquet Junior) Glock and Hamilton have shown that the younger drivers can do well if they prove themselves in GP2. Would love to have GP2 on the BBC as there are some great races with more errors than in F1.
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I'd like to start a new blog (mostly through Insomnia and boredom) the greatest F1 drivers (all round talent as a driver, not jus speed) since Grand Prix started in 1979, which allows me to judge only drivers Ive watched in my lifetime, I came up with this list -
1. Ayrton Senna
2. Michael Schumacher
3. Fernando Alonso
4. Alain Prost
5. Nigle Mansell
6. Lewis Hamilton (although he will be higher in a couple of seasons)
7. Nikki Lauda
8. Gilles Villenueve
9. Mika Hakkinen
10.Nelson Piquet
Just an opinion, but I like to think its an educated one.
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What a daft thing to post - 'isn't this thing which we can't be bothered to screen really interesting, let's all talk about it'.
I have sympathy, adding 4 hours racing into the weekend schedule is a lot for those who aren't interested, but surely it could be screened on late-night or something if you're already filming the thing? Or do you think the likes of repeats of 'Countyfile' are altogether better value for the licence payer?
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Sorry, I misspelt 'Countryfile'; but it could have been a lot worse!!!!! ;-)
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As these blog comments seem to be read (and sometimes acted upon) by the BBC management, I just wanted to add my call for GP2 to be shown by the BBC. Extra production costs must be minimal, and I'm sure you'd have more viewers for this than Friday practice (welcome as that is.)
Cheers.
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Have to say I agree with most of the postings here, I was just getting into GP2 over the past couple of years and assumed it would be included in the BBC coverage (which for the F1 is 1st class). It's a real shame the Beeb have given it to Setanta, already paying for the license fee and Sky Sports I don't feel like paying another £12 or whatever they want for 1 sports channel plus a load of club channels? Not being a football fan seems a bit pointless.
I would like to also add the call for the BBC to get the GP2 back and start showing them !!
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