Despite having apparently been close to finalising a deal to see out the current GP2 Series campaign with BCN Competicion, Andy Soucek is now being tipped to return to Super Nova for the remaining rounds.
The Spaniard was linked to Enrique Scalabroni's squad after carrying out testing duties at Paul Ricard last week, with the team claiming that 'negotiations to confirm the collaboration for the remainder of the season are in an advanced state'. Although Adrian Valles - who recently switched to BCN from FMSI - is understood to be a fixture for the rest of the year, little has been heard about Milos Pavlovic since the Serbian was forced to sit out the two races at Monaco.
Just as it appeared that Soucek had found a home after months of wandering up and down the GP2 grid, however, it looks as though his plans could be about to change again.
According to Spanish sports daily
AS, the former national F3 champion could be on his way back Super Nova, having contested the Turkish double-header with David Sears team. According to the report, Soucek will step in to the same car, hitherto occupied by Christian Bakkerud, presumably because the Dane's back refuses to heal sufficiently for the team to take a chance on his fitness.
Ironically, Bakkerud - who was unavailable for comment when
Crash.net tried to contact him - reported that he had not felt better than after the Monaco weekend, where he took a heavy landing at the start of the sprint race. A subsequent demonstration of the GP2 car at an airshow in Denmark, however, is rumoured to have disturbed the back injury again, despite basically being a straight-line race with a jet fighter from the national air force.
If the speculation is true, Soucek will be back with Super Nova from this weekend's Magny-Cours round, and will partner Barcelona race winner Alvaro Parente for the remainder of the season.
"This is the best birthday present that I could have," Soucek was quoted by the report, "The season was twisted because of events with the Fisichella team - but, thanks to that, I am now with one of the better teams. I want to give thanks to my sponsors, who have followed me despite all these problems."
Soucek started the year contracted to DPR for the inaugural GP2 Asian Series, but lasted just one round before his summer series deal with Fisichella made it impractical for him to continue with David Price's team. However, having sat out the remainder of the winter competition, the Spaniard was dropped by FMSI in contentious circumstances, missing his home race at Barcelona amid a flurry of legal proceedings.
He then surfaced at Super Nova in Turkey, before returning to DPR to stand in for the injured Michael Herck in Monaco, opening the team's account for the season in the sprint event. With Valles heading for Le Mans with the Epsilon Euskadi prototype team, and the uncertainty surrounding Pavlovic, Soucek stepped in for the Ricard test, but now appears to have created further question marks at the Barcelona-based team.
