Thursday, 24th April 2008

Italian back for another crack at championship - and believes he is well placed to challenge.

"Of course, it's a good way to go before reaching Formula One, because you have the opportunity to learn a lot," he explained, "You work a lot with the engineers, you work on the set-up of the car, and you learn to use the information to adjust the different elements of the car. The car we use is very similar to a Formula One car, with very competitve materials such as the carbon brakes, the gearbox, or the actual power, which is not bad at all.

"There are many things that make GP2 similar to Formula One and, what's more, the important thing is that it is a very competitve series, because all the drivers have the same car and the difference is made according to each driver's capacity to properly adjust the car, and the skill displayed in the race."

Racing Engineering will no doubt benefit from Pantano's experience, even though team-mate Javi Villa is himself moving into a third season in GP2.

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"Javier isn't that young, I think he has already grown up!" Pantano joked, "Seriously, I think we both work to do our best and we'll try to get good results. I probably have more experience and might know a few things more, but I think he doesn't have much more to learn. I'll try to help him, but he is already a very fast driver. I'm sure that we'll both have the chance to do well.

"I don't have to tell him anything because, as I say, he's a fast driver. At some point, I may be able to teach him this or that because of my experience - how to face a certain race, or what decisions to take when there is little time. But I'm sure that there's not much more I can teach him, because he's well capable already of doing a good job."

That experience will also be useful as the GP2 Series introduces a brand new car for 2008, and Pantano is already pleased with what he has found.

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