[Keith Collantine]

Racing Engineering hires Norman Nato:

Racing Engineering are pleased to announce that 23 year old Frenchman Norman Nato will be joining the Spanish team for the 2016 GP2 Series.

Norman who began karting in 1998, winning the French K72 Championship before moving to the Formula Renault F4 Eurocup in 2010 finishing as runner-up with two wins. In 2011 he moved up to Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 taking two podiums as well as a podium in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup. Norman continued in the Eurocup in 2012 winning his first race at Spa and finishing 4th in the Championship as well as finishing runner-up to current F1 driver Daniil Kyvat in the Formula Renault 2.0 Alps. 2013 and 2014 saw the Frenchman racing in the World Series by Renault where he was 13th in his debut season and 7th in the second year with two wins and two podiums. Norman’s first season in GP2, 2015, has shown his progress and he scored points on four occas! ions to date with best finishes of 6th at Hungary and Monza and he had his first experience of the Racing Engineering team when he joined them for the final day of the post-season tests at Abu Dhabi in November of last year.

Norman Nato: “I am really pleased to join Racing Engineering this season for the GP2 Series championship. It is a very experienced team that has already won the GP2 championship twice. The Abu Dhabi post-season test went well and it was a logical decision to keep working together for the 2016 season. After a first season to discover and learn about the GP2 series in 2015, my aim is now to be a front runner in every race meeting in order to fight for the title.”

Alfonso de Orléans- Borbón, President of Racing Engineering: “We are very pleased to announce that Norman Nato has joined us for the 2016 season. After seeing the pro! gression he made during last season, it was discussed that he would be ready to join our team. Now that it is a reality, we are all working hard to get ready for the first test of the season. We expect Norman to be competitive from the first race of the season since has the talent and the work ethic to step up on the podium from the beginning.”

[Keith Collantine]

And neglected to mention yesterday Oliver Rowland will join Manor MP. Can’t help but think he deserved a seat at a better team.:

http://manormpmotorsport.net/en/news/234/oliver-rowland-returns-to-mp-motorsport-for-2016-gp2-campaign

So the GP2 line-up so far looks like this:

ART – Sergey Sirotkin / TBA
Racing Engineering – Jordan King / Norman Nato
DAMS – Alex Lynn / Nicholas Latifi
Campos – Mitch Evans / Sean Galael
Russian Time – Raffaele Marcielo / Artem Markelov
Rapax – Arthur Pic / TBA
Trident – TBA / TBA
Status – TBA / TBA
Carlin – TBA / TBA
Manor MP – Oliver Rowland / TBA
Arden – TBA / TBA
Prema – Pierre Gasly / Antonio Giovinazzi

[R.J. O’Connell]

Then again, we don’t know what potential MP Motorsport has had while De Jong has been their lead driver. Rowland did fairly well for them last year. Marco Sorensen and Tio Ellinas were good the year before. If they want to turn their form around, getting a driver on Rowland’s caliber is a good place to start.

[WheelToWheel]

A bit of sad news for the GP2 grid…. Daniel De Jong will stay with MP Motorsport for his fourth year in the category. Just as the grid was looking as one of the strongest we ever seen,De Jong is announced..

[Keith Collantine]

As expected, Matushita stays at ART:

Vandoorne’s Super Formula switch confirmed

[R.J. O’Connell]

@lolzerbob That’s actually a fifth year of Daniel de Jong, Mr. #VeteranPresents himself. But he’s basically bankrolling Rowland’s drive, which is a good thing, and I’m glad that he’s recovered from that savage crash at Spa. Kinda like how Ricardo Gelael is bankrolling his son, his son’s teammate, and his son’s best friend who doesn’t even drive for the same team as the previous two.

[Keith Collantine]

@lolzerbob @rjoconnell Hear that? It’s the sound of the barrel being scraped…

Philo Paz Patrick Armand, who was Roberto Merhi’s team mate at Pons in Formula Renault 3.5 last year until he started having problems with his visa, will race for Trident.

To the best of my knowledge his highest finishing position in any race was fourth in a Formula Renault 2.0 ALPS event in which more than half of the field retired.

His team mate will be Luca Ghiotto, who ran Esteban Ocon close for the GP3 title last year.

[WheelToWheel]

Well I predict next year is going to be at the back of the grid Gelael and Armand scrapping whilst the rest of the field lap them..

[WheelToWheel]

More news. Gustav Maljia has signed up with Rapax for a full season in 2016 to replace Robert Visoiu

[R.J. O’Connell]

Malja did a lot better than I’d expected in FR3.5 given his prior track record. I’ll set my expectations low on him this year, but there’s some potential.

I like this grid. There’s a lot of strong drivers who all have a shot to become champion, which more than outweighs the weaknesses of the tail end of the grid.

[R.J. O’Connell]

Really proud to announce that I will be racing with @CarlinRacing in GP2. All this feels like a dream I always had! pic.twitter.com/kMKdGJBopE

— Marvin Kirchhöfer (@followmarvincom) March 8, 2016

Marvin Kirchhöfer will race for Carlin next year. Last year, he led GP3 in race victories, and was an ADAC Formel Masters and German F3 champion in his first two years of single-seater racing.

[WheelToWheel]

Testing lineups completed

For the first test starting tommorow, Carlin have announced that William Buller, will fill up their second seat. He was a backmarker in Japanese Super Formula last season and spent two underhwelming seasons in WSR. Arden have made an even worse announcement that European F3 backmarker Nabill Jeffri have joined the team for the test. However, Jimmy Eriksson is not a bad driver and his showings in GP3 make him a positive announcement

[Keith Collantine]

Testing has begun today, here’s a look at all the teams bar Russian Time and Status.

A few interesting points to note: ART have gone back to their traditional white-and-red having run in McLaren colours last year – presumably because Sirotkin is not affiliated with McLaren whereas last year both of ART’s drivers were.

Prema’s drivers have completely different liveries, something which Ecclestone normally forbids (remember the BAR affair in 1999). Has Red Bull’s clout earned them a concession to run Gasly in their colours while Giovinazzi does not, or will we see a compromise job on the cars similar to what we saw when Gasly first appeared in the series?

Nobuharu Matsushita, ART, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Sergey Sirotkin, ART, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Norman Nato, Racing Engineering, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Jordan King, Racing Engineering, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Alex Lynn, DAMS, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Nicholas Latifi, DAMS, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Mitch Evans, Campos, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Sean Gelael, Campos, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Gustav Malja, Rapax, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Arthur Pic, Rapax, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Philo Paz Armand, Trident, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Luca Ghiotto, Trident, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Marvin Kirchhofer, Carlin, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Will Buller, Carlin, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Antonio Giovinazzi, Prema, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Pierre Gasly, Prema, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Oliver Rowland, MP, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Daniel De Jong, MP, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Nabil Jeffri, Arden, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Jimmy Eriksson, Arden, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

[Keith Collantine]

Here are the Russian Timers. No obvious Meldonium sponsorship:

Artem Markelov, Russian Time, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

Raffaele Marciello, Russian Time, Circuit de Catalunya, GP2, 2016

[Arnold Triyudho Wardono]

Sean & Antonio have a nearly same KFC livery despite in the different teams..

[Author]

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