WSR 3.5 Silly Season.

[Mr Jinxx]

That's a helluva lot of testing mileage! No excuses that you don't know the car/team after that lot!

Alx Danielsson is in his 2nd year in the series, he should perform. Ben Hanley is in his 2nd year with Cram (good team) so he should do well too. I'm interested to see Kerr vs Macintosh ... I think Robbie has been around a long time, a good benchmark, he is a good racer, but not the quickest guy - Sean Macintosh is a prospect, and it will be interesting to see how they compare. Sean needs to stick to his own setups. James Rossiter ... dunno. He should be right at the sharp end from the outset. Pons are no slouches.

Soucek?? Who's he? Obviously he and Interwetten are strong, if he;s showing Salignon the way home so far.

I like these cars. A good step before GP2, although I get the feeling, not sure why, that the cars are "softer" somehow than GP2, not so much on their toes, and they should therefore suit that type of driver.

[SALEEN S7R]

I never said that the top guys from WSBR would struggle in GP2, I just said I dont think they would do much more than get a few points finishes. The top 8 or so drivers IMO are signifcantly better than Kerr, McIntosh and Toccacelo. How many times did Kerr and McIntosh beat Premat or Lappiere in A1 last season, or Piquet for that matter? I feel that the main reason GB got 3rd place in the A1 championship was due to Piquet leaving the team in place of Fitipaldi rather than Kerr's driving abilty.

Yes you can argue that Premat and Lappiere were with Dams in A1 and had a slight advantage due to the team having several franchises but how much of a differnce that really made is anybodys guess. Brazil though were not with the Dams squad and they didnt have any such advantage. Neel Jani was also quite a bit faster than Kerr in A1 several times throughout the course of the season and had he stayed in the series until the end would we have made the top 4 in the championship?

Unless there was some sort of freak accident during the course of a race I cant see a driver from this years WSBR winning a GP2 race, unless they were perhaps with a top team like Arden or Art. Dont misunderstand me, I like WSBR and I think the racing is very good, I just feel that most of the drivers, if not all arent 100% ready for a sucessful year in GP2. Hence they are in WSBR. All of this is just my opinion.

[chunterer]

The series versus series quality thing is good, but best for another thread?

If we're talking about top drivers - i don't rate Tocacello as a star, but his experience will count for a great deal. Robbie Kerr is someone who will probably make the most of the opportunity he's been given and will more than hack it against the 'younger' guys that are at his level in their career from 4 or 5 years ago if you know what I mean. He is certainly a title contender on talent alone and has generally been a frontrunner in everything he's competed in (and really shoul've have been given opportunity in GP2. MaYbe he will in 2007 if he top 3's in WSR this year).

The only reason Kerr's career hasn't progressed as it should is down to lack of money and support, not any lack of ability. Sir John Surtees 'patronage' has put that right and now he has the opportunity to finish off his 'junior' career and stake a claim for a drive at the top echelon within next couple years.

It will be a good season between him, Maldonado, Salignon for the title (IMO!!) with Garcia, Fleming, Kane, Hanley, Rossiter and hopefully McIntosh, Aleshin and Pilet chalenging if their ability is allowed to show by their equipment.

[Kebab]

WSR will be great to watch as hopefully it'll be more about the drivers than the teams/money .. then we'll really see who rises to the top!

Don't mistake talent for having big sponsors / the best team / family heritage.

[GM Man]

I was surprised to see the GP2s lapping Valencia at 1.22 in the season opener, considering they are running slicks and stronger engines this year and WSR where doing 1.20 last year in testing...

I also think it is pretty safe to say both catagories are very competetive and the top guys from both would perform well in any high power car.

[SALEEN S7R]

Yes but the Valencia GP2 pole time was 1:17.886, signifcantly faster than the times the WSBR cars set.