The Stakes
The GP3 Series heads into its sixth season of racing and what a mouth-watering prospect we have ahead of us. New for 2015 is an extended Saturday race: an extra ten minutes has been added to race one which will provide more of a challenge to the twenty-four drivers and no doubt produce some epic tussles as the drivers’ battle with tyre degradation.
Following the six pre-season testing days it’s anybody’s guess who will be top dog this season. Testing has been extremely competitive with both the experienced drivers and the rookies coming out on top – game on!
Eight teams will compete for glory this season and we welcome newcomers Campos Racing to the fold. The Spanish squad will commence their campaign on home soil, having already shown their pedigree in GP2 Series.
The Circuit de Catalunya is known to very challenging for tyre degradation due to its long high-speed corners and fast changes of direction. The Hard medium compound Pirelli tyre will be in use for the opening round with the forecast for this weekend dry with warm temperatures.
Reigning champion Alex Lynn tasted victory in Barcelona last year and kick-started his dominant campaign in impressive style, who will be next to follow in his footsteps?
Warm Up: Alex Palou – Campos Racing
For me I think this track is one of the most difficult in the Series but it’s also one of the best to race. It’s a very tricky circuit where you have two sectors of very fast corners and then a very slow sector to finish the lap. It’s difficult to find the perfect set-up but you need to try and find the right balance. I love the entire track but in particular I really enjoy T4 and T7. Both corners are very difficult to find the limit so you always think you can pass faster. This circuit is one of the hardest on tyres. The degradation is normally massive here so I expect the races to be very fun. It is a great opportunity to race in front of my family and friends and this gives me a lot of confidence, a home race always gives you extra motivation.
NOTEWORTHY:
This season marks the sixth in GP3 Series’ history.
Campos Racing joins the Series and will be hoping to replicate their form from our big sister series GP2.
This year’s grid features 8 teams and 24 drivers.
For 2015, GP3 Race 1 has now been extended by 10 minutes – therefore running for 40 minutes.
This year we welcome our first drivers representing Thailand (Sandy Stuvik), Kuwait (Zaid Ashkanani) and Poland (Aleksander Bosak & Artur Janosz).
Two GP3 Champions currently race in Formula 1: 2013 Champion Daniil Kvyat with Red Bull Infinity Racing and 2011 GP3 title winner Valtteri Bottas with Williams Martini Racing.
Four former GP3 drivers/champions currently have development or test driver roles in Formula 1: 2014 GP3 Champion Alex Lynn (Williams Martini Racing), 2010 GP3 title winner Esteban Gutierrez (Scuderia Ferrari Team) Adderly Fong & Carmen Jorda (Lotus F1 team).
FUN WITH FIGURES:
90: The percentage of our twitter followers who are male (where are you girls)?!
1,212: The number of likes on our Insider Magazine Facebook page (have you liked it yet)?
189 cm: Jimmy Eriksson is the tallest driver in this year’s Series
17: Ralph Boschung is the youngest driver competing this campaign
1,440 – number of slick tyres used during pre-season testing
20,000 Approximate number in litres of fuel used during pre-season testing
6 Number of drivers topping pre-season test days (Fuoco, Boschung, Kirchhöfer, Palou, Mardenborough & Varhaug)
164: Number of days since GP3’s last race