Who will win the 2012 GP2 series?
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GP2 testing has finished today and I see Esteban Gutierrez was fastest.
I thought Gutierrez had a solid but unlucky season last year and I’m expecting big things from him this year – I reckon he could beat the more experienced Giedo van der Garde and Davide Valsecchi to the title.
Who do you think is going to win this year – and maybe get that all-important promotion to F1?
And which of the rookies will do best? Felipe Nasr and James Calado are both exciting prospects.
Gutierrez Should take it. he dominated Gp3 and sealed his title with a spectacular win in Monza, raised the bar compared to Sergio Perez taking a win in his first Gp2 season plus a wet race overtake to Romain Grosjean. and was consistenly getting better.
however i think his promotion to F1 depends on Perez going to another team so he can take Sauber sponsored spot..
another possibilty is kobayashi going somewhere else and sauber convincing slim to take a major sponsorship role and sauber ends up with two mexicans!!
The combination of ART, second year driver and a lad who walked GP3 sounds tough to beat on paper.
Valsecchi and van der Garde should be there on experience. Kind of wonder where either would land in F1 though.
Calado and Nasr will be fascinating. They could have a titanic title scrap in ’13 if they learn the game this year and stick with their respective teams.
Gutierrez is a good bet and Valsecchi and van der Garde will be there but I wouldn’t rule out Eriscsson either. He was only ever slightly off Sam Bird’s pace last year and if Bird was in this years field I think he’d be a clear favourite.
Coletti has shown great race pace in the past too so he should be up there as well. After that I expect Chilton to finally put a season together and Calado, Nasr and Dillman to be getting near the podium at the end of the year. An interesting season but far from what it could have been if FR3.5 wasn’t so popular.
I think Gutierrez will win the title, he needed a year for adaption and I think he’s capable of doing it now. It might be a bit hard for him to get to F1 though, as Sauber has two young drivers they’re working well with.
Haven’t seen much of Calado, but based on his GP2 Final performance in Abu Dhabi, I reckon he’s the best bet for being the rookie of the year.
I do think Gutierrez will earn a 2013 Sauber promotion, and he’s a clear favourite for the title. I think that this will be an unfortunate case of experience versus speed; the grid isn’t as competitive as GP3’s or WSR’s, but there are some talents to be found. Nasr, Calado, and Dilmann (assuming he gets a seat) are all quick and promising; and sophomores Coletti and Gutierrez can challenge the veterans for the title.
Compare that to Auto GP’s grid, which boasts Ayrton Sennas such as Adderly Fong, Max Snegirev, Giuseppe Cipriani, and Matteo Beretta. (Although Sirtokin and Quaife-Hobbs are really good).
I don’t think you can rule out van der Garde. Whilst not the best sub-F1 driver he does have bags of experience at this level, a solid team and is a past FR 3.5 winner. I think he’ll be very consistent and that could put him in the title mix.
I think it’s going to be difficult to predict a winner, probably because some good teams have drivers that one would not really expect to be there on merits. If I had to choose, I’d say Gutierrez, Kral and van der Garde are probably the best bets, although I’d really like to see Felipe Nasr do what Rosberg and Hamilton did and win it first time out.
I think van der Garde and Gutierrez are the clear favourites this year, but Davide Valsecchi could also be a potential winner if he can consistently finish well. He was quick in testing so don’t rule him out. If I were to put money on it, I would say van der Garde would be my pick for the title
I think (and hope) Gutierrez does it. Calado and Nasr should do well also.
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