McNish in GP2?

[BSchneiderFan]

Allan McNish is to take over development work on the GP2 car while Franck Montagny accompanies Renault to the Far East, according to Autosport.

Just filling in for his old employer, or does McNish have his eye on a race seat next year?

[Mathias]

Hmmm..., I'm a big fan of Allan McNo - he's a proven all-round driving talent etc etc, but surely the last thing GP2 needs is to get a reputation as the place where old F1 drivers go out to pasture (that's what Mickey Mouse racing and McLaren/Toyota testing is for, surely?).

Nice signature, BTW.

[Kicking-back]

Mathias - I agree this is clearly just a bit of development work for Allan.

However, a few F1 experienced drivers may provide a good benchmark for the youngsters.

In the glory days of F2 that used to happen.

[BSchneiderFan]

There is a precedent in F3000, though; both Jan Lammers and Marc Goossens raced there at fairly advanced ages, and Mike Thackwell was an ex-F1 driver by the time he was in F3000. Dallara Nissan also saw Marc Gene, Enrique Bernoldi and Ricardo Zonta - indeed, it went a long way to restarting Zonta's flagging F1 career.

[Kicking-back]

Exactly.

A McLaren "junior" team with Alex Wurz or Pedro de la Rosa alongside Lewis Hamilton may work very well!

[Mathias]

Well, I mean... yes... in principle, yes, I can see the advantage of that. And I wouldn't want to ban ex-F1 drivers from such an enterprise obviously (especially people like the sort of super-subs and almost-made-its of F1 who otherwise might not be able to keep their racing oar in). So, erm, OK. Yes, I'll cave on that issue, so long as there's always room for the new stars of the sport to come through...

...although, perhaps, if the GP2 grid is full of F1 also-rans, then up-and-coming drivers (like Carroll, Green, Piquet II, Rossiter etc) will stay in the F3 series for longer, thus keeping grids fuller there...

...probably not though.

[Kicking-back]

Mathias - there will always be room for the up and comers - most racing series tend to be short on drivers, rather than being oversubscribed.

[Mathias]

True, true, true indeed...

But once you've got McNish, Wurz, Gene, Bernoldi, Zonta, de la Rosa, Badoer, Salo, Pizzonia, da Matta, Glock, Karthikeyan, Enge, Lotterer, Yoong, Saelens, Albers, Bobbi, Davidson, Burti, Verstappen, Frentzen, Firman, Wilson, Kiesa, Montagny, Briscoe... (I think you get the picture) plus all the guys currently in F3000, E3000 and WS - it's quite a full grid!

Could be exciting.

[Kicking-back]

I suspect we'll see 4 or 5 guys with F1 experience, and the rest from F3000/F3 and Dallara Nissan.

It's shaping up well, in any case.

[Alfonso de Orleans]

Something I would like to add here is that I think anyone that has developed the car most probably will not be allowed to race it. Conflict of interest, and Renault are not interested in the bad press it can produce when it's easier to stick in many other drivers. So the possiblitiy of seeing McNish and Montagny in the series is quite low, if not impossible. If not we would be seeing Kovalainen or Lopez doing a few laps in it as well. Don't you think?

[DanFlag]

I do not think Montagny and McNish will race in the series

[Kicking-back]

Agreed.

It would be such an obvious accusation from other drivers - "he's done all the testing".

We definitely won't see Montagny or McNish in it.

[Mekola]

Originally posted by Alfonso Orleans
So the possiblitiy of seeing McNish and Montagny in the series is quite low, if not impossible. If not we would be seeing Kovalainen or Lopez doing a few laps in it as well. Don't you think?

Of course sir. That's the reason that López didn't even touch the GP2 car because existing F3000 teams claimed Renault that they didn't want that López has any advantage over other possible GP2 drivers.

[Kicking-back]

There's some speculation Sebastien Bourdais may be racing in the series next year.

Make of that what you will....

[Pete Fenelon]

Originally posted by Kicking-back
Mathias - I agree this is clearly just a bit of development work for Allan.

However, a few F1 experienced drivers may provide a good benchmark for the youngsters.

In the glory days of F2 that used to happen.

I can look at this two ways....

(1) if they went back to the days of "graded drivers" (who could compete in the races, but weren't eligible for championship points) then I have no problem with ex/current F1 guys competing in F2-level races. They'd enhance the grid and provide a great yardstick for the "comingmen".

(2) On the other hand, with budgets as hard to come by as they are now, would backers risk their money on a young up-and-coming kid rather than a safe brand name?

[Kicking-back]

Problem with the "graded driver" business is that it complicates things.

People like the points to reflect the race result.