2014 GP2 Series season preview and primer - MotorSportsTalk

As Formula 1 steals the limelight and often overshadows all other motorsport events that take place at the track on a race weekend, its premier feeder series – GP2 – has a great reputation and prestige within the sport’s community. Since its inception back in 2005, the series has produced 25 F1 drivers, including 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton, race winners Nico Rosberg and Pastor Maldonado, plus the likes of Romain Grosjean, Nico Hulkenberg, Kamui Kobayashi and Heikki Kovalainen.

2014 sees the series enter its tenth season, and with a number of highly exciting drivers entering the championship, the stage is set for a classic season of GP2 racing. Who will follow in the footsteps of Fabio Leimer and clinch the title this year?

WHAT IS GP2?

GP2 emerged from the old International F3000 series back in 2005, and has since been the direct feeder series to Formula 1, although drivers have been known to graduate from Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2’s own feeder series, GP3. Many of the teams in F1 do have major interests in GP2 with junior teams and drivers, as it is the perfect training ground for them under the wing of the sport.

GP2 perfectly prepares drivers for life in Formula 1 as they are part of the grand prix weekend. Each GP2 round supports its respective grand prix, meaning that the drivers get to use the exact same facilities and circuits. The series also gets great exposure by being an integral part of the grand prix weekend, being broadcast all over the world and in front of the baying crowds that flock to some of F1’s best-attended races.

THE CAR

In order to make the racing as competitive as possible, all drivers race with identical chassis, engines and tires in GP2.

The current car, the GP2/11, was designed by Dallara and is fitted with a four litre V8 engine (larger and louder than in F1, where V6s are used), generating up to 612 BHP. It will be used until 2016 to keep costs down.

The GP2/11 can do 0-60 in 2.9 seconds and is capable of a top speed of 206mph. This may be the ‘feeder series’, but a GP2 car is no slouch. The car must also pass a Formula One crash test and be up to F1 standards in all areas of safety.

Pirelli tires are a standard for all teams racing in GP2, just as they are in Formula 1. Furthermore, teams have the same compounds that are used in F1: super-soft, soft, medium, hard, intermediate and wet.

THE DRIVERS AND TEAMS

Here is the grid for the 2014 GP2 Series season:

RT RUSSIAN TIME
Mitch Evans NZL
Artem Markelov RUS

Carlin
Felipe Nasr BRA
Julian Leal COL

Racing Engineering
Raffaele Marciello ITA
Stefano Coletti MON

DAMS
Jolyon Palmer GBR
Stephane Richelmi MON

ART Grand Prix
Stoffel Vandoorne BEL
Takuya Izawa JPN

Hilmer Motorsport
Daniel Abt GER
Facu Regalia ARG

Rapax
Adrian Quaife-Hobbs GBR
Simon Trummer SUI

Arden International
Rene Binder AUT
Andre Negrao BRA

EQ8 Caterham Racing
Rio Haryanto INO
Alexander Rossi USA

MP Motorsport
Daniel de Jong NED
Jon Lancaster GBR

Trident Racing
Axcil Jefferies ZIM
Johnny Cecotto Jr. VEN

Venezuelan GP Lazarus
Conor Daly USA
Nathanael Berthon FRA

Campos Racing
Arthur Pic FRA
Kimiya Sato JPN

THE CALENDAR

1. Bahrain 4-6 April
2. Spain 9-11 May
3. Monaco 22-24 May
4. Austria 20-22 June
5. Great Britain 4-6 July
6. Germany 18-20 July
7. Hungary 25-27 July
8. Belgium 22-24 August
9. Italy 5-7 September
10. Russia 10-12 October
11. Abu Dhabi 21-23 November

THE RACE WEEKEND

The typical GP2 race weekend fits around the proceedings of Formula 1. On the Friday of each race, there will be a free practice session lasting 45 minutes, and then a 30 minute qualifying session. The grid for the feature race is formed from these results.

On Saturday, the feature race sees drivers race over a distance of 170km (140km for Monaco) and, like in Formula 1, they must make a pit stop and use both compounds of tire. Points are awarded in the same way as Formula 1 (without double points in Abu Dhabi).

On Sunday, the top eight finishers in the feature race are reversed to form the grid for the sprint race (i.e. finishing P8 in the feature race gets you pole for the sprint race).

The sprint race is run over a reduced distance of 120km (100km for Monaco), and points are awarded on a smaller scale (15 for P1, 12 for P2, 10 for P3, right the way down to one point for P8.

Points are also awarded for pole position and the fastest lap in each race.

DRIVERS TO WATCH

Raffaele Marciello
Marciello is widely considered to be Italy’s next great racing hope, and is the leading star in Ferrari’s driver academy. Known as “Lello”, he won last year’s FIA Formula 3 European Championship and now makes the step up with the team that took Fabio Leimer to last year’s title, Racing Engineering. He also raced up against NBCSN’s very own Will Buxton in the Florida Winter Series, and is a definite star for the future.

Stoffel Vandoorne
Just as Marciello is Ferrari’s great hope, Vandoorne is at the top of McLaren’s junior programme. The Belgian youngster finished as runner-up to Kevin Magnussen in Formula Renault 3.5 last season, and he is now chasing the GP2 title at the first attempt with ART. With Jenson Button approaching the end of his career, Vandoorne could be his direct successor, and a strong rookie year in GP2 certainly would help his chances of moving into F1 soon.

Felipe Nasr
Brazilian driver Felipe Nasr enters his third year in GP2 this season, and he is certainly one of the title favorites after finishing fourth in last year’s championship despite not winning a race. He will be balancing his campaign with a test driver role at Williams.

Alexander Rossi
As the only American driver to hold an FIA superlicense, Rossi is the nation’s best hope of a home driver in the near future. Having impressed during testing with Caterham Racing, he will be keen on mounting a serious title challenge this year after finishing as top rookie last time around.

Conor Daly
After a difficult winter, Daly secured a seat with Venezuela GP Lazarus just a few days ago, but he is geared up for the new GP2 season. After racing in GP3 last year and finishing the championship in third place, Conor – alongside Alexander Rossi – will be looking to give the US fans something to shout about in GP2 this season.

Also look out for: Mitch Evans, Stefano Coletti, Takuya Izawa, Arthur Pic.

Follow @LukeSmithF1

Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

Women in SuperMotocross: Jordan Jarvis knows how tough it is

The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

Women in SuperMotocross Ashley Fiolek is building community

Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

Read more about SuperMotocross