GP2 Series

The GP2 Series, GP2 for short, is a form of open wheel motor racing. GP2 was started in 2005 after the Formula 3000 was stopped. The format was conceived by Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore, while Ecclestone also has the rights to the name GP1.grandprix.com August 11, 2005 In 2010 the GP3 Series class was launched, as a feeder class for the GP2 series.

GP2 was designed to be an affordable racing series and a training series for Formula One. GP2 requires all of the teams to use the same chassis, engine and tyre supplier. Almost all races have taken place as support races on Formula One race weekends. Many drivers have used GP2 as a stepping stone into Formula One.

 GP2 Series cars 
The GP2 Series car is used by all of the teams, and features a Dallara chassis powered by a V8 Renault engine and Bridgestone tyres.

The 4 L Renault V8 engine features design and software upgrades designed to improve performance and fuel consumption. The engine produces about 620 bhp (432.5 kW). GP2 Series engines are rev-limited to 10,000 rpm.

Bridgestone supplying three slick tyre compounds for racing on dry (soft, medium and hard). They also provide a wet weather tyre. The choice of tyre to be raced is made by the Bridgestone  and the GP2 Series organizers prior to each event.

Brembo supplies the brakes.

 Race weekend 
On Friday, drivers have a 30-minute practice session and a 30-minute qualifying session. The qualifying session decides the grid order for Saturday's race which has a length of 180 kilometers.

During Saturday's race, each driver has to make a pit stop in which at least two tyres have to be changed.

On Sunday there is a sprint race of 120 km. The grid is decided by the Saturday result with top 8 being reversed, so the driver who finished 8th on Saturday will start from pole position and the winner will start from 8th place.

Point system
2005-2011
 Pole for Saturday races: 2 points
 Point system for race 1  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th  10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1

 Point system for race 2  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th  6 5 4 3 2 1
 Fastest lap: 1 point in each race. Driver recording fastest lap has to drive 90% of race laps. The driver must now also start the race from his allocated grid position and as of 2008 must finish in the top ten of the race to be eligible for the fastest lap point.

With this points system, the most number of points anyone can score in one round is 20 by claiming pole position, winning both races with the fastest lap in each race. This has only been achieved twice in GP2 Racing's short history. By Brazilian Nelson Piquet, Jr. in the 9th round of the 2006 season in Hungary and by German Nico Hülkenberg in the 5th round of the 2009 season in Germany.

2012-present
 Point system for race 1  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th   9th   10th  25 18 15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1

The top eight finishers in a sprint race receive points as follows:

 Point system for race 2  1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th   8th  15 12 10 8 6 4 2 1

Fastest Lap and Pole position are the same in the previous system

 Champions 
SeasonChampionSecondThirdTeam Champion 2005  Nico Rosberg (ART Grand Prix)  Heikki Kovalainen  Scott Speed  ART Grand Prix 2006  Lewis Hamilton (ART Grand Prix)  Nelson Piquet, Jr.  Alexandre Prémat  ART Grand Prix 2007  Timo Glock (iSport International)  Lucas di Grassi  Giorgio Pantano  iSport International 2008  Giorgio Pantano (Racing Engineering)  Bruno Senna  Lucas di Grassi  Barwa International Campos Team 2009  Nico Hülkenberg (ART Grand Prix)  Vitaly Petrov  Lucas di Grassi  ART Grand Prix 2010  Pastor Maldonado (Rapax)  Sergio Pérez  Jules Bianchi  Rapax 2011  Romain Grosjean (DAMS)  Luca Filippi  Jules Bianchi  Barwa Addax Team 2012  Davide Valsecchi (DAMS)  Luiz Razia  Esteban Gutiérrez  DAMS 2013  Fabio Leimer (Racing Engineering)  Sam Bird  James Calado  Russian Time 2014  Jolyon Palmer (DAMS)      

 Drivers graduated to F1 
 2005  Nico Rosberg  Heikki Kovalainen   Scott Speed 2006  Lewis Hamilton  Nelson Piquet, Jr.  2007  Timo Glock  Kazuki Nakajima  2008  Bruno Senna   Sébastien Buemi 2009  Nico Hülkenberg  Vitaly Petrov  Lucas di Grassi  Romain Grosjean   Kamui Kobayashi   Karun Chandhok 2009  Sergio Pérez 2010  Pastor Maldonado  Sergio Pérez  Jérôme d'Ambrosio 2011  Jules Bianchi   Charles Pic 2012  Max Chilton  Esteban Gutierrez  Giedo van der Garde 2013  Marcus Ericsson

Drivers are listed by their last year in GP2 Series. Usually they started in F1 at the start of the following season.
 = graduated to F1 later
 = started in F1 mid-season

Note: Timo Glock had four Grand Prix starts in 2004, drove in GP2 Series in 2006-07 before moving to F1 in 2008.

Related pages

 Formula One
 Formula 3000
 Formula Two

 References 

 Other websites 

 GP2 Series site
 English Information Website