“It's more physical to drive – the steering is a lot heavier and obviously has 15 per cent more downforce. It's quicker – we're definitely between seven tenths to a second a lap quicker than last year – and especially when we go to Monaco this year, we'll have the super-soft tyres like the
F1 cars and I think we should be within two or three seconds of
Formula 1. That'll be pretty impressive.
“If you look at GP2 this year, I think it's going to be the most competitive ever. I'm not just saying that because I'm in it, because if you look back to the first year it was Nico [Rosberg], Heikki [Kovalainen] and pretty much nobody else – ok, Alex Prémat won a few races here, there and elsewhere and Adam [Carroll] won a few races – then in the second year it was Lewis [Hamilton], Nelson [Piquet] and Timo [Glock] in the second half when he switched to iSport, and that was it, and then last year it was pretty much Timo versus Timo. Every time he made a mistake [Lucas] di Grassi won one, but otherwise it was Timo, di Grassi and [Andreas] Zuber in a class of their own really.
“This year I can count 14 drivers off the top of my head who can win a race, and I don't think GP2 has ever had that before. It's bloody hard. Look at Barcelona; we had 16 drivers who set race fastest laps – not qualifying, but race laps – within six tenths. That is seriously close, and I think it's going to be like this all year.
“You're just going to have the guy who hooks the lap up in qualifying at the front, and the ones who are able to get the car right for the race and get the tyres to last – because the new car is more aggressive on the rear tyres, so tyre wear is a lot higher – will be the ones who win.”
As to what may lie beyond 2008, the inaugural Formula Asia V6 by Renault Champion is playing his cards close to his chest, despite an impressive debut Formula 1 test for
Red Bull Racing towards the end of last year, and repeated speculation that he could form part of the
Force India line-up in 2009.
