Dubai: With the 2011 GP2 Series drivers' crown already won by Frenchman Romain Grosjean of the DAMS team, much of the eagerness will be to see who slugs it out for a consolation victory at the non-championship round at Yas Marina Circuit this weekend.
This year's GP2 Series season was the seventh running of the Pan-European event for single specification open wheel GP2 cars and it saw 13 teams compete over a nine-event series, starting in Istanbul on May 7 and concluding at Monza on September 11.
With the season performing its role of developing emerging young drivers, it was decided to run the Abu Dhabi round as a non-championship competition under the name 2011 GP2 Final.
Consistent performer
Grosjean, the reigning GP2 Asia champion, was a consistent performer during the season, starting with a first place in the opening round in Istanbul, followed by another four top finishes in Valencia, Great Britain, Germany and Hungary to collect 89 points and win the crown going into the penultimate round of the series in Belgium.
But it was the trio of Luca Filippi, Jules Bianchi and Charles Pic that kept the fight for the title interesting as they came up with many good performances of their own, but really fell short when it came to consistency.
Filippi, who ended with 54 points with his Scuderia Coloni team, took three first places in Germany, Belgium and Italy, while Lotus Art driver Bianchi's 53 points contained just one race win at the Silverstone circuit.
Driving for Barwa Addax team, Pic had two first places in Spain and Monza, Italy, and Racing Engineering's German driver Christian Vietoris had a couple of firsts in Belgium and Italy as the 2011 series witnessed a total of 32 different drivers representing the 13 teams.
New aspects
With the 2011 season done and dusted, the organisers have brought in new aspects to the 2012 GP2 Series season, which will be the first campaign after merging with the GP2 Asia Series. The championship will be expanded to include several flyaway races in support of the 2012 Formula One season.
Next year's series will also adopt the points system used by F1 for the feature race, with points awarded to the top 10 drivers and 25 points on offer for victory. The points awarded in the sprint race will also be changed, with the winner receiving 15 points and the top eight drivers all receiving points.
What is GP2?
- The GP2 Series was conceived as the F1 feeder sport after the discontinuation of Formula 3000, which had for long served that purpose.
- The inaugural season of GP2 Series was held in 2005. Constructors in the competition are Dallara, Engine suppliers Mecachrome and the tyres are produced by Bridgestone. However, Pirelli has stepped in as the official tyre until 2013.
- The GP2 Series has been designed to make it the perfect training ground for F1. Racing is affordable for the teams as all drivers use the same chassis, engine and tyre supplier, thus ensuring the driver's ability is fully tested.
- The races are usually held as support races at F1 race weekends to give drivers first-hand experience of the Grand Prix environment. The organisers also use the infrastructure set up for the F1 events.
- All GP2 Series champions have successfully graduated into F1, with Williams hiring 2005 champion Nico Rosberg, 2006 winner Lewis Hamilton entering the following year with McLaren and 2007 champion Timo Glock going to Toyota for 2008.
Format: How it is run
* The drivers have a 30-minute free practice session and a 30-minute qualifying session on Friday. The grid order is decided in the qualifying session.
* The race, with a length of 180 kilometres, is held on Saturday. For every driver, it is mandatory to make a pit stop in which at least two tyres are changed.
* On Sunday there is a sprint race of 120 kilometres. The grid is decided by the Saturday result with top eight being reversed, so the driver who finished eighth on Saturday will start from pole position and the winner will start from eighth place.
