Otay, I'll confess up front that I really haven't
paid much Attenzione to A-L-L of the numerous Feeder Series or their Rising
Stars this year, as HELL! I can barely keep up with Formula 1 and IndyCar these
Dazes; Crikeys Mates! As here's last year's riveting edition;
Thus I'm doing this in a slightly different
format this year, as there's just simply too many names to chronicle, not
enough time to do the necessary research, nor desire to do any cursory bio's
right now. As the series are in NO particular order; Hmm? Perhaps I should go
alphabetically, eh?
Nah, but I'll let Y'all figure out my method
'O madness, while I've gleamed some of my candidates from the following Mid-season
review story below, especially since the European side of the ladder seems to be missing entirely
from television coverage Stateside. As I think "Peacock-lite" showed
a total of two GP2 Feature Races this year? Having only seen Austria and Russia
on thy 'Telie; Aye Karumba!
And I tend to miss out/forget about the Mazda
Road To Indy (MRTI) shows, and when I do try to watch one, the JACKALOPES at
"Peacock-lite," nee NBCSN decide Golf's more important than showing
the advertised Indy Lights race; SHEISA! Can Y'all say Milwaukee...
GP2
Like aspiring American F1 hopeful and current
GP2 Team Lazarus pilot Conor Daly recently said upon
Autosport Radio, there's currently five Formula 1 reserve drivers competing in
its ranks, as I could only name one off
hand: Felipe Nasr, (Williams Martini Racing) before learning of Stoffel Vandoorne ((McLaren Mercedes) when
scribblin' about second generation F1 hopefuls.
Thus, painstakingly researching the current
eleven Formula 1 Constructors, ('Whale, at least there were eleven Formula 1
Constructors when I began this, pre Caterham and Marussia's respective implosions...)
I've unearthed the following additions. As Davide Rigon
was the name that came to mind when trying to conjure up past GP2 champions not
making the leap into F1 race seats, with the Italian being part of Scuderia
Ferrari's reserves; while I've never heard of the 'Dane Marco Sorensen, a Lotus
F1 reserve driver, as NO idea who the fifth F1 Reserve Hombre is? Unless Conor
was speaking of Alexander Rossi, who's recently left his Caterham GP2 seat for
the rosier confines 'O Marussia; OOPS! As what a true shame that he wouldn't
get his deserved Homecoming debut at Austin; DAMN
So who knows how many of this aspiring crop will
land in Formula 1 or perhaps IndyCar in the near future? While I haven't even
mentioned the then runaway GP2 points leader Jolyon Palmer who's since clinched the championship title
with a fine win in the Feature Race on the Streets of Sochi, so congrats Jolyon!
As the young Nasr, lying second in the championship
prior to "Abu Double," wasn't far off the mark, with Sauber having
announced the Brazilian as a Sauber F1 driver alongside Sweden's Marcus
Ericsson just prior to this year's Brazilian GP, albeit causing quite the storm
of controversy with two other Sauber drivers who thought they had contracts for
2015 to be the team's pilots...
FR 3.5
A few more Formula 1 Test/Reserve
Drivers have found their way into this somewhat potential Feeder Series with
Malaysia's Jazeman Jaafar (Mercedes AMG PETRONAS) and the much lamented
'Rooskie Sergey Sirotkin *Sauber) on the grid. As amazingly, the Russian driver
has won this year in Formula Renault 3.5 along with making his Formula 1 Friday FP1 (Free Practice) outing
in his home country's Russian Grand Prix.
And a late season addition to the Formula 1
"simulator Jockey" (Test/Reserve Driver) ranks was Will Stevens, who
drove this season for Strakka
Racing. As Stevens was hoped to be on
the F1 Grid for Friday practice in Suzuka at the very least but couldn't get
his necessary FIA Superlicense paperwork
ironed out in time - as now the Russian-flagged F1 Constructor has gone into
Administration a la rival back-marker Caterham F1...
Yet thanks to
Caterham's controversial crowd funding scheme, along with the FIA
finally signing off on his mandatory
Superlicence, Messer Stevens made
his debutant Formula 1 race drive at season's end at "Abu Double"
behind the wheel of one of the "Green Cars."
Meanwhile, Red Bull Junior Driver Carlos Sainz Jr. was
the clear championship leader entering the final races with a 39-point advantage, along with five wins to date, while Red Bull's got another iron in the fire with French newcomer
Pierre Gasly also
being impressive, while I haven't even touched upon title contender Roberto Merhi.
The 23yr old Spaniard Merhi, a part of
Mercedes "Junior team," and Mercedes DTM driver from 2012-13 made the
leap back into single seaters for the Russian Zeta Course Formula Renault 3.5
team, which gave eventual champion Sainz a good run for his money, before
wrecking in the season finale and slipping to third overall in the title
standings.
Roberto
has moonlighted as a Friday morning
Free Practice driver for the struggling Caterham F1 team, having made his
debutant outing for the beleaguered squad at Monza, with further outings this
year, and is possibly sniffing around for an F1 seat in the future...
GP3
Continuing the theme of F1 "Simulator
Jockeys:" Err Test/Reserve Drivers, Tio Ellinas (Marussia) is
currently contesting this championship, while another Red Bull Junior Academy
driver Alex
Lynn from Britain is apparently running
away with the show and is tipped to win this year's championship - which he led
by 31-points ahead of 'Kiwi Richie Stanaway. (At the time of this story's writing...)
Going into the season finale at Abu Dhabi, Alex
Lynn held a comfortable points lead of nearly 50 markers (185-points) ahead of
the runner-up logjam, including the likes of: Dean Stoneman (138) Marvin Kirchhofer,
(137) Jimmy "NOT MARCUS" Eriksson (127) and Richie Stanaway.
(123)
As Lynn clinched the title at Abu Dhabi during
qualifying thanks to GP3 rival Kirchhofer taking Pole and claiming the 4-bonus
points associated with it, while Stoneman needed a clean sweep for any chance
of winning the title...
F3
Otay, so the only name I know out of the 439
Formula 3 variations is the much Ballyhooed Max Verstappen, as we'll see how far he can go up the ladder now that he's
another of the myriad of the hopeful "B-I-G
BULLS" lads - whom I scribbled 'bout briefly in;
OTHERS
Along with 'Kiwi Richie Stanaway, I also
know a little 'bout GP2 Hotschue Mitch Evans, especially since kidding about
him not being Cornfuzed as the Unlimited Hydroplane chauffer instead; Hooah! (As
I'd say I did pretty good here, having unwittingly picked the second &
third place GP3 runners going into Abu Dhabi...)
As I'll confess I know Nothing about Ferrari
Junior GP2 driver Raffaele
Marciello or German GP3 driver Marvin Kirchhofer, other than I like his name...
While
another name I know 'bout is Dean Stoneman, if memory serves me right? Stoneman
was the winner of the 2010 F2 championship, ironically beating somebody named Jolyon
Palmer to the crown, as I first heard of Dean's name upon getting a test outing
for Williams F1 as part of his championship prize.
Unfortunately
Stoneman's career hit a major speed-bump when
being diagnosed with testicular cancer and I lost track of him; so was
glad to read he'd won both of his Porsche Supercup races upon his return to the
cockpit and has won a very impressive five rounds (2 Feature & 3 Sprint
races) of this year's GP3 championship...
And that's all I'm gonna scribble here, since
after all Ryan of JOWT is the master of this domain, while I just like to try
'N dip my "Balls" in the water, Seb' Vettel; Oh Never Mind! As
perhaps I need a 'bwankie like Seb, eh? Hur-hur-hur...
