[McLaren Rulez]

I was pretty surprised when I heard that Kobayashi was actually lousy at GP2. In fact, he'd have never made it to F1 if it weren't for Glock's injury. We know now that he's pretty damn good (he even made the WDC look like a total noob). At the same time, we've seen drivers like Piquet Jr. who are fantastic at GP2 but total crap in an F1 car. The only guy who I can think of who did successfully in both (I mean in terms of winning championships) is Lewis Hamilton. So is GP2 really as good a stepping stone to F1 as its thought to be?

P.S. Nico Hulkenberg, driver for Williams next year, is a GP2 champ!

[racingmachine]

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

We know now that he's pretty damn good (he even made the WDC look like a total noob)

Well that's not completely fair. Button had just come out of the pit stop when the overtaking incident between him and kobiyashi happened. Button was heavy and Kobiyashi was super light when that overtaking took place. Even button explained that during the post race press conference.

If you also consider the brazilian incident with his williams compatriate nakajima, i see another Takuma Sato in the making. Mind you, Sato was also a brilliant racer, but he had a better reputation for causing crashes and funny incidents during a race.

Let's hope i'm wrong, and someone picks him up for a race seat next season as toyota is no longer in F1, and as said by kobiyashi himself, he has no budget to race anywhere next year unless toyota or any other team picks him up as a driver. Else, he'll have to go back to japan and make "sushi" in his father's restaurant.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by racingmachine

Well that's not completely fair. Button had just come out of the pit stop when the overtaking incident between him and kobiyashi happened. Button was heavy and Kobiyashi was super light when that overtaking took place. Even button explained that during the post race press conference.

Well I thought that was Button making a rather lame excuse. We saw Webber prove that you can defend there against a quicker car (Button was miles quicker than Webber in the last few laps). Button ended up making a mistake which is slightly different to being outpaced and overtaken cleanly. In any case, Kobayahsi's lap times in Abu Dhabi were impeccable. And I can forgive the Nakajima incident and a few other things as rookie errors. At least, let's give him the benefit of that doubt on that.

The point is, he's a very quick driver unlike what seemed to be the case in GP2. And on the other hand, some GP2 champs have been extremely slow in F1 cars. So is GP2 really a good indication of a future F1 potential? And if not, why do F1 teams still pay so much attention to it?

[pranavt]

Because GP2 cars are very very similar to F1 cars. There is the Nissan/Renault World Series which has similar cars, but GP2 has the benefit of supporting F1 races on most weekends. So more eyeballs are on GP2 races/racers than on Renault World Series. Mind you, Renault World Series has probably produced better drivers than GP2.

[cbr954rr]

But isn’t that the same with MotoGP and SBK as well ? Take James Toseland and Max Biaggi for example..! They were amazing in SBK before they came into MotoGP. But I guess SBK or GP2 is the closest available stepping stone to the higher Formula One / MotoGP

Cheers

Vivek