Feeder series congestion?

22 of the 26 drivers for the upcoming GP2 Asia season have been announced. If the two Team AirAsia drivers (and Team Lotus reserves) are confirmed to be Davide Valsecchi and Luiz Razia as speculated, that means that nine of the 24 are drivers who did not race at Abu Dhabi at the end of the 2010 season. Now that doesn't really seem like enough of a turnover for the leading feeder series for Formula 1.

It certainly isn't when you bear in mind the amount of series that drivers could be recruited from. The most obvious are:

• GP3
• Formula 2
• Formula Renault 3.5
• Auto GP
• Formula 3 Euro Series
• British Formula Three

The number of series feeding into GP2 has increased over recent years with the introduction of GP3, F2 and Auto GP. This has led to what I'm calling 'feeder series congestion'. The leading drivers of all these series are looking to move into GP2, yet there just isn't the space for them.

Let's take a look at where the nine 'new' GP2 drivers have come from:

• Jolyon Palmer (Arden) - 2010: Runner-up F2
• Esteban Gutierrez (ART) - 2010: GP3 champion
• Fairuz Fauzy (Super Nova) - 2010: Lotus F1 tester, 2009: Runner-up in FR3.5
• Johnny Cecotto Jr. (Super Nova) - 2010: First 8 rounds of GP2 with Trident, 3 points scored, 23rd in standings
• Pal Varhaug (DAMS) - 2010: 13th in GP3, won opening round but failed to score after that
• Stefano Coletti (Trident) - 2010: 6th in FR3.5 / 9th in GP3 (missed opening round)
• Julian Leal (Rapax) - 2010: 20th in FR3.5 / 9th in Auto GP
• Nathanael Berthon (Racing Engineering) - 2010: 7th in FR3.5
• Mikhail Aleshin (Carlin) - 2010: FR3.5 champion.

When GP3 arrived on the scene at the beginning it looked very good. With a strong driver lineup it looked like GP2 2011 could be full of GP3 graduates. Yet from this list it is only runaway champion Gutierrez, replacement driver Coletti and the unimpressive Varhaug who make the step up. Drivers such as Rob Wickens (runner-up), Alex Rossi (fourth) and Rio Haryanto (fifth) have all failed to make the step up (yet). Furthermore there are absolutely no drivers graduating from F3.

The introduction of a new chassis has seen GP2 budgets rise to around the £2million mark. With money now even more important some of the top drivers in the lower formula are missing out on the step up to GP2.

Money also looks like it is meaning that some drivers are staying on in GP2 over both new recruits and people who beat them last year. Fabio Leimer, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Max Chilton were the bottom three drivers in the final standings out of those who competed in every race weekend last year. They have all found drives for 2011, thanks to the size of their wallets, which are inflated by personal sponsors Bautro, PDVSA and Aon respectively.

Meanwhile Oliver Turvey is forced onto the sidelines after finishing sixth in the 2010 standings in his maiden season, thanks to a lack of funds. I will blog on this separately.

A lack of seats in the lower end of F1 for drivers without sponsorship money has meant that the likes of Jules Bianchi have had to remain in GP2 rather than vacate their seat for new promising drivers.

The Return of the Pay Driver

The grid for Formula One in 2011 is quickly filling, with drivers who bring significant financial backing. Williams have signed Pastor Maldonado, backed by Venezualan oil company PDVSA. Sauber have signed Sergio Perez, supported by Mexican telecommunications giant Telmex. Virgin have signed Jerome D'Ambrosio, who brings sponsorship to the team from Belgium, while Renault have retained Vitaly Petrov, who enjoys strong backing from Russia. Now HRT have brought Narain Karthikeyan back to F1 after six years away, thanks to Indian company Tata. It is likely that HRT's second seat, the only one remaining, will also be filled by a driver who can pay for it.

Now cast your minds back to 2008, where there appeared to be absolutely no 'pay drivers', who had previously been a staple component of the F1 grid, allowing low-budget privateer teams to remain on the grid. Adrian Sutil had used his sponsorship from German tech company Medion to secure his seat with Spyker for 2007, but impressed the F1 field, remaining with the team for 2008 as it was renamed Force India. Williams took on Kazuki Nakajima, a product of engine supplier Toyota's development programme. But no drivers had their seat in F1 entirely thanks to money.

The reduction in big-budget manufacturer teams as a result of the financial crisis that hit the world later that year has lead to an increase in the number of private teams needing to run to strict budgets, even though spending has been significantly cut anyway thanks to cost-cutting measures. Many companies, such as RBS and Phillips have seen out the remainder of their long-term sponsorship contracts with teams, and left the sport as a a knock-on of the crisis. They have not been replaced, which is why even established teams like Renault, Williams and Sauber have had to go looking for drivers with a budget.

Some of them, such as Petrov, Maldonado and Perez have done a reasonable job in the lower formula, and therefore deserve to be in F1, although whether they deserve to keep big talents like Nico Hulkenberg or drivers with known speed like Nick Heidfeld out of those seats with decent teams is questionable. Ideally they would drive for the lower teams such as Virgin and HRT, while the likes of Hulkenberg and Heidfeld kept their seats at teams like Williams and Sauber.