Grand Prix Rejects

Some really stupid accidents in GP3 today!

>mfw Quaife-Hobbs wins the GP2 sprint race

Now Sam Bird is a title contender, just 6 points off the lead.

GP2 continues to plumb depths with some Canadian dude called Gianmarco Raimondo becoming the latest driver with Trident

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109911

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:GP2 continues to plumb depths with some Canadian dude called Gianmarco Raimondo becoming the latest driver with Trident

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109911

Oh dear, Raimondo was quite terrible in F3 EuroSeries a couple of years back. Prepare for reject glory.

eurobrun wrote:

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:GP2 continues to plumb depths with some Canadian dude called Gianmarco Raimondo becoming the latest driver with Trident

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/109911

Oh dear, Raimondo was quite terrible in F3 EuroSeries a couple of years back. Prepare for reject glory.

Well, he did finish runner-up in F3 Open last year, he beat Facu Regalia (who finished 4th, and look at him now).

But yes, he has done no single-seater racing in the meantime.

Guys, brace for an all-reject lineup at Lazarus, no er..Venezuela GP Lazarus (I've particularly stressed on 'Venezuela' and you'll soon know why) in 2014.

PRESENTING

Roberto La Rocca and Camilo Schmidt.

While a few of you may have heard of la Rocca before (he was outbid by Carmen Jorda for the GP3 seat at Bamboo this year), very few of you will have heard of the Venezuelan with an Italian first name and a German surname. The latter just turned 17 and did Mazdas in 2012, and hasn't raced since..

THAT'S ALL...no seriously, just 15 races, chaps....Good luck to Senor la Rocca and Herr..er..Signor..no, Senor Camilo Schmidt..

Camomile tea, anyone?

BIGGEST CUP OF CAMILO, ER...CAMOMILE GOES ON A HIGHEST BIDDER WINS PROCESS

Disclaimer: Nothing has been officially announced yet, but it's almost set to happen, so much so, that Schmidt has written 'future GP2 pilot' on his twitter..also, take care not to choke on your tea...

All right, seems I'm the only one who laughed at my joke...

right, before I forget, GP2 and GP3 have signed a new contract with Pirelli..http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/groups/gp2/forum/topic/gp2-and-gp3-extend-pirelli-contract/

wsrgo wrote:right, before I forget, GP2 and GP3 have signed a new contract with Pirelli..http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/groups/gp2/forum/topic/gp2-and-gp3-extend-pirelli-contract/

And yet they still don't supply the Porsche Supercup

Dark77 wrote:

wsrgo wrote:right, before I forget, GP2 and GP3 have signed a new contract with Pirelli..http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/groups/gp2/forum/topic/gp2-and-gp3-extend-pirelli-contract/

And yet they still don't supply the Porsche Supercup

You care about Porsche Supercup

That makes one person then

Great Result for Carlin, in qualy. 1-2, keeping Nasr in the hunt.

Leimer scores a great 3rd place to keep himself going.

Whilst Calado is 8th, Bird 10th and Coletti 11th. So there could be a big scrap for reverse grid pole. Though qually was crash tastic so who knows what will happen.

Was there with my friend,who never saw GP2 before. When he asked me what was GP2 like,the first crash of the session came and I simply stated, "That's GP2."

Shadaza wrote:Great Result for Carlin, in qualy. 1-2, keeping Nasr in the hunt.

Leimer scores a great 3rd place to keep himself going.

Whilst Calado is 8th, Bird 10th and Coletti 11th. So there could be a big scrap for reverse grid pole. Though qually was crash tastic so who knows what will happen.

Caterham looking impressive with Rossi 4th and Canamasas 7th while the day wouldn't be complete without Johnny Cecotto getting up to some blocking antics.

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:

Shadaza wrote:Great Result for Carlin, in qualy. 1-2, keeping Nasr in the hunt.

Leimer scores a great 3rd place to keep himself going.

Whilst Calado is 8th, Bird 10th and Coletti 11th. So there could be a big scrap for reverse grid pole. Though qually was crash tastic so who knows what will happen.

Caterham looking impressive with Rossi 4th and Canamasas 7th while the day wouldn't be complete without Johnny Cecotto getting up to some blocking antics.

ROSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!

Cecotto was given a three-place grid drop for his blocking along with Leal. That's not a penalty, that's just a minor setback...especially as it lost Bird about 5/6 places on the grid (you'd have expected him to outqualify Dillmann, maybe even been close to Leimer).

Another day, another penalty for Cecotto.

Nice work Leimer

Anyway, Sam Bird won the sprint race, while Coletti's career continues to sink faster than the Titanic with a daft collision with Evans on lap 1. Although, the big thing that'll probably come out of this weekend will be just how god-awful the Supersofts were. Ignoring Palmer and Carlin's epic hax setup, the most laps anyone managed to get out of them was four.

If it's the same story for the GP later tonight, then there's gonna be a storm a brewin...

Wizzie wrote:Nice work Leimer

Anyway, Sam Bird won the sprint race, while Coletti's career continues to sink faster than the Titanic with a daft collision with Evans on lap 1. Although, the big thing that'll probably come out of this weekend will be just how god-awful the Supersofts were. Ignoring Palmer and Carlin's epic hax setup, the most laps anyone managed to get out of them was four.

If it's the same story for the GP later tonight, then there's gonna be a storm a brewin...

Bird is the quicker driver with more wins (5 against 3) but Leimer is the more consistent having finished all but 1 race in the top 6 between Silverstone and Singapore so on that evidence i'll back Leimer for the title.

Nice to see Cecotto having one of his more cleaner races in 6th while a massive shame for Daniel Abt who could have finished in the top 5 but for a yellow flag infringement. His rookie GP2 year goes from bad to worse

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:a massive shame for Daniel Abt who could have finished in the top 5 but for a yellow flag infringement. His rookie GP2 year goes from bad to worse

This, Abt seemed to be much faster here, he was just as fast as Calado and would have made the top 10 in qualifying had his car not broken down.
If Abt can drive well at Abu Dhabi his career might just be saved.

Russian Time/Motopark will be replacing Bamboo Engineering as the 9th entrant in GP3 next year. http://www.paddockscout.com/russian-time-joins-gp3-field-for-2014/

The best named team in all of sports is growing. And that is a good thing.

Does anyone think Russian Time can make an entry into F1 in the near future? I hope they do.

I'm not sure anyone is going to be moving up from GP2 to F1 for the foreseeable future given the relative disaster that the Caterham, Marussia and HRT projects have been so far. Remember that these were all based on fairly respectable racing outfits to begin with (Litespeed, Manor GP and Dallara respectively).

watka wrote:I'm not sure anyone is going to be moving up from GP2 to F1 for the foreseeable future given the relative disaster that the Caterham, Marussia and HRT projects have been so far. Remember that these were all based on fairly respectable racing outfits to begin with (Litespeed, Manor GP and Dallara respectively).

Whilst Dallara did design the first Campos/HRT, issues with money meant it wasn't as refined as it could be. Still, I feel the base 2010 HRT was potentially the fastest of the 3 new teams and had Dallara thrown their resources behind a true effort, I feel they would be a decent, possibly even points scoring, team.

I had no idea that RUSSIAN TIME was part owned by Motopark, you learn something new everyday.

Aerospeed wrote:Does anyone think Russian Time can make an entry into F1 in the near future? I hope they do.

I hope so too because the team name is epic

Wallio wrote:The best named team in all of sports is growing. And that is a good thing.

eurobrun wrote:I had no idea that RUSSIAN TIME was part owned by Motopark, you learn something new everyday.

Aerospeed wrote:Does anyone think Russian Time can make an entry into F1 in the near future? I hope they do.

I hope so too because the team name is epic

You don't like Sauber F1 Team, Williams F1 Team, Caterham F1 Team, or Marussia F1 Team?

RUSSIAN TIME could be the 10's version of Super Aguri if they got the F1 slot

UgncreativeUsergname wrote:

Wallio wrote:The best named team in all of sports is growing. And that is a good thing.

eurobrun wrote:I had no idea that RUSSIAN TIME was part owned by Motopark, you learn something new everyday.

Aerospeed wrote:Does anyone think Russian Time can make an entry into F1 in the near future? I hope they do.

I hope so too because the team name is epic

You don't like Sauber F1 Team, Williams F1 Team, Caterham F1 Team, or Marussia F1 Team?

I would have liked US F1 Team...

Can anyone other than Leimer and Bird still win the championship mathematically?

It is definitely a sign that the quality in GP2 is on the wane when Coletti can still be 4th in the standings despite not scoring since JUNE. No-one's really gone all-out for the championship this season, as both Bird and Leimer have had spells when they've not been impressive. All in all though, I think Bird's been the better driver this season, and hopefully he'll win the championship along with RUSSIAN TIME.

East Londoner wrote:Can anyone other than Leimer and Bird still win the championship mathematically?

With a maximum of 48 points available for the weekend, Felipe Nasr, Stefano Coletti (incredibly) and James Calado are still in mathematical contention.

Wizzie wrote:

East Londoner wrote:Can anyone other than Leimer and Bird still win the championship mathematically?

With a maximum of 48 points available for the weekend, Felipe Nasr, Stefano Coletti (incredibly) and James Calado are still in mathematical contention.

#CaladoWinslol

East Londoner wrote:Can anyone other than Leimer and Bird still win the championship mathematically?

It is definitely a sign that the quality in GP2 is on the wane when Coletti can still be 4th in the standings despite not scoring since JUNE. No-one's really gone all-out for the championship this season, as both Bird and Leimer have had spells when they've not been impressive. All in all though, I think Bird's been the better driver this season, and hopefully he'll win the championship along with RUSSIAN TIME.

Not quite Coletti's podium in Germany was in early July but you are right that quality is dropping in GP2 if it's come to something like this

I think Leimer has had terrible luck. He bore the brunt of Calado's over-eagerness at the start in Barcelona. He was the only person directly affected by Cecotto's brainfade at Monte Carlo. Both happened on first laps of the feature race, and that ruined his entire weekend on both occasions. Also, the Spanish team Racing Engineering haven't been as good as the German-Russian outfit.
Also, I don't want Bird to win because that would mean a gradual increase in the age of past GP2 winners...Hulkenberg 22 (okay), Maldonado (25), Grosjean (25), Valsecchi (25), and now Bird (26). Leimer's only 24. flimsy reason I know

Got to get the feeling that if Sam Bird was going to break into F1, he'd have done so already. Leimer just doesn't seem exciting enough to get into F1. That's not to say I think neither of them are deserving of an F1 drive though.

watka wrote:Got to get the feeling that if Sam Bird was going to break into F1, he'd have done so already. Leimer just doesn't seem exciting enough to get into F1. That's not to say I think neither of them are deserving of an F1 drive though.

What's wrong with not being exciting? As long as Leimer's getting his job done he deserves an F1 chance but Bird should be in F1 sometime soon because it would be galling if a driver who has no podiums gets chosen over a man with 5 wins to his name

Freeze-O-Kimi wrote:

watka wrote:Got to get the feeling that if Sam Bird was going to break into F1, he'd have done so already. Leimer just doesn't seem exciting enough to get into F1. That's not to say I think neither of them are deserving of an F1 drive though.

What's wrong with not being exciting? As long as Leimer's getting his job done he deserves an F1 chance but Bird should be in F1 sometime soon because it would be galling if a driver who has no podiums gets chosen over a man with 5 wins to his name

Not being exciting is the exact reason why Vergne wasn't considered for the Red Bull drive. Ricciardo had better outright pace in qualifying, which was considered more important than points finishes. I'm not saying that Leimer doesn't deserve an F1 drive, only that that is the reason I suspect he may never get one (+ money of course).

Would love to see Stefano Coletti win, just for the LOLs...

I have a strange feeling that Bird will never make F1 and be the new Gary Paffet, hope I'm wrong though. Where as I could realistically see Leimer getting a midfield or backmarker F1 drive.

I still don't get the argument that quality is dropping, maybe I am just dumb but to me it seems the opposite.

Had Colletti not been racing then yes, it would be silly he still has contention, but he has and he has been outclassed!
If you had dropped the best 10 drivers on the planet in the series at the midpoint of the season they would take points off each other and Colletti would still be up there!

The reason for the "crazy weak series" is RUSSIAN TIME took time to get into gear as they were a new operation, note the strategy errors they have made. Art had really awful setup issues over the midway point so Calado couldn't do any more than he has and Marcus Ericsson has had probably the most appalling luck I have ever seen.

All 3 (Sam Bird from RUSSIAN TIME)of those drivers are significantly better than Colletti but haven't been able to hook it up, mostly for reasons beyond their control. Then you have Leimer and Nasr, those 2 consistently score points, but lack the big ticket punches the others have and consequently haven't scored big wins. Both of whom are better than Colletti.

Then you add factors such as Carlin's Haxor Singapore setup and you end up with a cluserbug of fast drivers, whilst Colleti can swan along with his admittedly good start to the season.


You only need to take a few of these drivers away (read weakening the series) and suddenly Colletti is nowhere in the standings! This goes against the argument you all have!

Shadaza wrote:I still don't get the argument that quality is dropping, maybe I am just dumb but to me it seems the opposite.

Had Colletti not been racing then yes, it would be silly he still has contention, but he has and he has been outclassed!
If you had dropped the best 10 drivers on the planet in the series at the midpoint of the season they would take points off each other and Colletti would still be up there!

The reason for the "crazy weak series" is RUSSIAN TIME took time to get into gear as they were a new operation, note the strategy errors they have made. Art had really awful setup issues over the midway point so Calado couldn't do any more than he has and Marcus Ericsson has had probably the most appalling luck I have ever seen.

All 3 (Sam Bird from RUSSIAN TIME)of those drivers are significantly better than Colletti but haven't been able to hook it up, mostly for reasons beyond their control. Then you have Leimer and Nasr, those 2 consistently score points, but lack the big ticket punches the others have and consequently haven't scored big wins. Both of whom are better than Colletti.

Then you add factors such as Carlin's Haxor Singapore setup and you end up with a cluserbug of fast drivers, whilst Colleti can swan along with his admittedly good start to the season.


You only need to take a few of these drivers away (read weakening the series) and suddenly Colletti is nowhere in the standings! This goes against the argument you all have!

That's a very good point actually. However, it still reflects badly on other drivers, their fault or not, that they are struggling to drop Colletti even given his inability to score for half the year.