Davide Valsecchi, a future in F1?

5 races into the 12 race GP2 season Davide Valsecchi has pulled out an impressive lead. He is currently on 141 points with second place Razia on 110 points and 3rd place Giedo van der Garde way back on 85 points.

This is Valsecchi's fifth season in GP2 (with 4 seasons in the ill fated GP2 Asia also under his belt) but all he has to show for it is 1 F1 is one young drivers test in 2010 for HRT, and one Friday session with Lotus (Caterham) in 2011. At 25 has he stagnated in GP2, never to quite make it or could he finally make the step up next year?

 

Good question, BLS.

I'm not yet aware of any top team taking an interest in Valsecchi; but I would expect Ferrari to be keeping a secret spotter's eye upon him pretty soon, and quietly nudging Peter Sauber in case he's not already noticed. Actually, my hunch is that they probably already have. I would suggest Sauber as the most likely 'non-minnow' team to give him a ride, but they might get a surprise from Toro Rosso, who may be performing a similar job for Red Bull.

However, it has become de rigueur for the bigger teams to wait until at least towards the end of a season before making approaches to an up and coming hopeful. And of course, these bigger teams will normally wait until a team like Marussia or HRT has been persuaded to give them a first showing in F1. This is especially the case with Ferrari, who prefer to see a driver establish himself over two or three seasons –after having made the grade with a team such as Sauber!

As things stand, I would suggest Valsecchi's opportunity is most likely to come from Sauber (at least publicly, because there is a rather sycophantic friendship with a big RED brother) and will be dependant on him maintaining his present standard. However, I would not count out competing interest from Toro Rosso who are sometimes thought of as a potential proving ground for Red Bull.

If, as I expect, Valsecchi wins the 2012 GP2 Championship, he still has time to make the grade – even at the grand old age of 25!

 

He does look a good driver, but would there be room for him at Sauber? Ferrari have already downplayed the Perez rumours, so he'll probably be at Sauber next year, plus Kamui has a contract into next season, and neither driver deserves to be dropped, in truth, both deserve better drives (no offence to sauber).

Plus age isn't a factor, Grosjean is about 27, and he's doing a nice job as a late bloomer.

 

I guess 25 isn't that old to enter F1 considering our current 2xWDC is 24, but I was more questioning his 5 seasons in gp2 without any signs of a big step towards F1. He seems to have the talent but I feel some may see that as being due to just being in the one formula for so long, can he adapt quickly?

 

It's interesting that he's been seemingly dumped by Caterham. AS BLS says, he did one practice session for them last year, but is no longer a test driver for them. I wonder what the reason for that is- it could have a major impact on whether or not he does get a drive in F1.

 

I don't think Valsecchi has a future in F1. He's may be Italian but he needs to prove he's got the talent before Ferrari would accept him in their driver academy. I don't know how he's doing so well this year when his results in GP2 prior to this season were so poor. To be honest I don't understand this year of GP2 - Max Chilton, a driver who was 100% ****, a failure in British F3, a failure in GP2, a failure in the F1 young driver test, now this season of GP2 he's always in the points...wtf?

 

Never rated GP2, most of the guys up front are only there because they have been in the series for 3-5 seasons already and on the rare chance do you get a Lewis or a Perez doing well in their 1st or 2nd season in it.

Instead of money being chucked at the driver to get into F1 because of talent (Seb, Lewis, Perez, Alonso), most of these GP2 drivers are chucking their money at the series to get into F1 (Maldonado, V.D.Garde, Valesecchi, Chilton).

It's just a shopping window for F1 teams to see which drivers that have a lot of money backing them. If anybody in there was as good as the likes of Lewis and Seb they would of been signed up by a team years ago, rather than spending years in a series that's equal to the Scottish premier league!

If you dont have the talent, spend your way into F1!