Although the new GP2 Asia series has yet to kick-off – with the first rounds taking place on the weekend of 25/26 January – Stephen Jelley admits he is already feeling the heat as he looks to secure a place on the grid for the main GP2 season.
The Briton will join Renault
F1 test driver Romain Grosjean in the ART Grand Prix line-up for the inaugural Asian campaign although the Formula 3 race-winner will need to impress the rest of the grid if he is to secure a drive for the European campaign with ART having already confirmed Luca Filippi will partner Grosjean for the coming season.
With that in mind, Jelley said he was eager to be successful when the five round series kicks off, with his focus firmly on impressing enough to take a GP2 drive.
"If we are quick in Dubai we have a good chance of being up there in the championship as there are two rounds in Dubai and we have four test days before the first one," he told
Crash.net. "If we can go well there it would be mega and then we have the other races in Sentul, Malaysia and Bahrain. A few people may have been to Bahrain but not the others. We don't get much practice for those and it is good to be in it for the first year of the championship before people learn all the circuits.
"I have nothing planned for the main championship and I have to do something early on, as the group test for the European series happens before the end of the Asian championship. With the European championship starting something like two weeks after the Asian series ends, it's critical that I start well to get something in the bag as seats are filling up.
"Its already tight and I am feeling a bit like 'What's going to happen?'. The focus is to get GP2 drive, but my main aim is to do well in Asia, chase wins and go for podiums. If I can do that then everything else will fall into place, so a good Asia and everything else will sort itself out."
![Stephen Jelley - DPR [pic credit: GP2 media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/279506.jpg)
