Racing Engineering driver Neel Jani moves over to the new GP2 Series after a couple of seasons in Formula Renault V6, and has already marked himself out to be one of the stars of the year ahead.
After a day-and-a-half of hard testing graft in the south of France, the Swiss driver - who occasionally tests Sauber's
F1 car - took time out to talk us around a lap of Circuit Paul Ricard, and give us his opinions on how the new Dallara GP2 car compares to its rivals.
"The first corner is a tight right-hander, which we take in first gear," he began, visualising the curves and contours of the HTTT circuit used for all GP2 group testing to date, "You have to be very precise with your braking point here, or you can go straight on to the parts of the circuit which aren’t used in this configuration.
"From here, the track falls slightly downhill into turn two, which is more of a kink than a corner. It’s an easy right-hander which you take climbing through the gears to fifth.
"Next up is a very special part of the circuit, the long and flowing chicane. You take this whole section in second gear as it rises uphill to the right, before sinking down to the left, back up to the right and back down again to the left. Exiting the chicane, the track dips down and then climbs gradually uphill to the brilliant Signes corner. By the time you reach Signes, you’re in sixth gear and are taking this right-hander flat-out at around 270kph! It’s amazing, really quick!
"Keeping your foot flat to the floor for the short straight that follows Signes, you’re then immediately into another corner. Dropping the car down into fourth gear, you are faced with a tricky double right-hander, like a spoon curve. The lateral G-force here is huge and, as you exit the second apex, the compression is quite substantial. At this point, you’re also faced with the fact that your rear end can snap away from you, so there’s a lot to deal with.
![Neel Jani - Racing Engineering [pic credit: GP2 media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/128944.jpg)
