Where are you now? The 12 different champions of the defunct GP2 series (2023)

The Formula 2 series has developed into an established proving ground for Formula 1. Formerly known as GP2, the series has given many of today's drivers a major advantage...

Formula 2 was conceived as a specific feeder category for F1 back in 2005, although it was initially dubbed 'GP2' until it was rebranded for the 2017 season.

If we look back at the list of series champions, there are some very prominent names as well as others that have faded from memory.

Let's take a look at the names and find out what each GP2 champion is doing today.

Nico Rosberg (2005)

Nico Rosberg, driving for ART, became the inaugural GP2 champion in 2005, taking five wins and four podiums on his way to the title.

He was rewarded for his efforts with an F1 career at Williams, helped by the marketability of the Rosberg name, when his father Keke won the F1 championship with Williams in 1982.

He made an immediate impression, setting the fastest lap in his first race and two points for seventh place. However, 2006 proved to be a difficult year for him and Williams: Another seventh place at the Nürburgring was his only other finish in the points.

Rosberg built a solid reputation over the next three years, his best championship result coming in 2009 when he scored points in 11 of the 17 races.

He secured a seat alongside returning Michael Schumacher at Mercedes in 2010 and proved he had the measure of the seven-time world champion over the next three seasons as Schumacher's powers had waned during his absence.

The dynamic was to change for 2013, with Lewis Hamilton acting as his teammate following Schumacher's final retirement, as the former childhood friends were quick to discover that racing together on the same team led to heightened tensions.

Mercedes became the dominant team in F1 in 2014, with Rosberg and Hamilton battling relentlessly, resulting in multiple clashes on track. Hamilton would win the titles in 2014 and 2015, and Rosberg won them in 2016 after a particularly acrimonious title fight. Two days after winning the title in Abu Dhabi, Rosberg promptly retired from F1 and has never shown any desire to return to the sport.

Today, Rosberg plies his craft as a broadcaster (he is a regular pundit on Sky F1), has invested in several startups in sustainability, electric mobility and technology, and is a shareholder in Formula E.

He is also the mastermind behind the Greentech Festival fair and founded the Rosberg x Rosberg Extreme E Team.

Lewis Hamilton (2006)

Hamilton, who also drove for ART, followed in Rosberg's footsteps by taking the GP2 title in his first year in the series. While Hamilton was only able to take one pole position that year, he also claimed four wins, beating Nelson Piquet Junior by 12 points overall.

Michael Schumacher's retirement from Ferrari in 2006 had an impact on Hamilton, with Kimi Raikkonen moving from McLaren to Scuderia to replace him. Following the departure of Juan Pablo Montoya mid-season, McLaren had the option of signing up-and-coming driver Hamilton or experienced tester Pedro de la Rosa alongside Fernando Alonso for 2007.

McLaren under Ron Dennis opted to give Hamilton a chance and the British driver was immediately competitive as he took his first podium finish in Australia. He was on the podium in every race through round ten of the season, including his maiden win at the Canadian GP.

Internal conflicts at McLaren meant neither Hamilton nor Alonso would beat Raikkonen for the title, but Alonso's departure at the end of a tense 2007 meant Hamilton took over the de facto role of team leader in 2008. Hamilton would once again face Ferrari, surpassing Felipe Massa and winning his first title in the dramatic Brazilian Grand Prix.

In 2009, McLaren didn't respond well to the drastic rule changes and although the team won races every year up until 2012, Hamilton was never able to complete a title challenge against Red Bull and Ferrari.

After a disappointing 2012, Hamilton got into Mercedes alongside Rosberg and bounced back quickly. Winning the intra-Mercedes feud in 2014 and 2015, his loss to Rosberg in 2016 was just a blip in a title monster, as Hamilton was paired with a more subservient Valtteri Bottas from 2017.

It took until 2021 for Hamilton to be ousted again, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen ending the streak. Hamilton continues to drive for Mercedes and will continue to do so in 2023.

Timo Glock (2007)

The German driver became GP2 champion in 2007, the first to do so, having previously raced in Formula 1.

After serving as a test driver for Jordan in 2004, Glock replaced Giorgio Pantano in the Canadian Grand Prix, finishing seventh after several cars were disqualified for technical infractions.

But,because of what he called "political games"., Glock was passed over for a seat in 2005 when the team changed hands. With no affiliation with another team, Glock was forced to take a step back to try to get his motorsport career back on track.

Glock moved to the United States to compete in Champcar and finished second in Montreal after a great battle with Oriol Servia, but decided to return to Europe to compete in the 2006 GP2 championship mid-year, scoring immediately with stronger results.

That momentum continued in 2007 as Glock took the title with five wins and an 11-point lead over future F1 teammate Lucas Di Grassi.

Toyota signed Glock to its F1 team in 2008, replacing Ralf Schumacher, although it required him to go through the FIA ​​Contract Recognition Board's process to do so, having already signed a trial contract with BMW.

Racing for Toyota resulted mostly in midfield mediocrity, although some notable drives included a podium finish at the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix as well as two fourth places.

Glock would finish second in his last race for Toyota at Singapore 2009 before a qualifying crash at Suzuka for the Brazilian Grand Prix replaced him with Kamui Kobayashi as Glock suffered a fractured vertebra.

Toyota withdrew from Formula 1 at the end of 2009 and Glock had to fight to find a place elsewhere. Newcomer Manor, competing as Virgin, signed him for 2010 but financially the small team has had little success.

Glock would never score an F1 point again, his best finish being a 20th from 26th in the Drivers' Championship in 2012. While on contract with the team for 2013, he later called Marussia, he and the team parted ways itself. Before. The season began: Glock switched to the DTM instead.

Between 2013 and 2020, Glock became a series veteran while driving for BMW. His first win came at Hockenheim in 2013 and his best championship result was fifth in the 2018 series.

Glock's racing schedule for 2022 saw him compete in some DTM rounds with Ceccato Motors and teamed up with Felipe Massa for a stock car race in Brazil earlier this year.

Giorgio Pantano (2008)

Like Glock, Pantano raced in GP2 after making his F1 debut. Pantano, who raced for Jordan in 2004, gave up driving in 2005 and switched to GP2 to race SuperNova.

A tough first half of the season yielded no results, but he revived with multiple podium finishes in the second half as he scored 49 points in 12 races.

Pantano also competed in two IndyCar races with Chip Ganassi, but was unable to secure a full-time drive. He also did some tests at Champcar.

For 2006 Pantano switched to FMS in GP2 and finished fifth overall including a win at the Magny Cours Round. When he competed for Adrián Campos' team of the same name in 2007, his championship result improved to third place with two wins.

2008 was the pinnacle of his time in the series when he won the overall title for Racing Engineering with four wins during the season. However, his success meant he couldn't stay on the series, and in 2009 Pantano had to look elsewhere.

That year he joined the short-lived Superleague series, winning again at Magny-Cours. Since then, Pantano's career behind the wheel has been piecemeal, with occasional IndyCar outings in 2011 and 2012. Pantano's racing career has since fully kicked off and dried up en route to finishing 14th overall in the 2014 Blancpain Sprint Series.

Nico Hülkenberg (2009)

The German entered GP2 from the Formula 3 Euro Series, but stayed with ART due to the change of championship. Hulkenberg proved unstoppable throughout his GP2 season, winning five races and taking the title with two races to go.

Hulkenberg echoed Rosberg's career progression by immediately signing with Williams for 2010 and had a decent seven-point season. As he clinched his first pole position in Brazil, an in-race collision saw him finish just eighth and despite a solid year he was passed over for a 2011 seat.

Instead, Hulkenberg joined Force India as a test driver but secured a return on the grid for 2012 with the same team.

Hulkenberg became a well-known midfielder for the next eight years, racing for Force India, Sauber and Renault teams and never managing to claim a podium finish during that time.

Outside of F1, Hulkenberg won the 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours alongside his Porsche teammates Earl Bamber and Nick Tandy.

His last full-time drive was with Renault in 2019, although he appeared as a reserve driver with Racing Point/Aston Martin in the 2020 and 2022 seasons; Most recently, he appeared as a substitute at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. for Sebastian Vettel.

Hulkenberg has also appeared as a regular pundit in German F1 coverage and will return on the grid with Haas next season after being chosen to replace Mick Schumacher.

Pastor Maldonado (2010)

Venezuelan racer Pastor Maldonado had a long career in GP2, having first entered the series in 2007 with Trident Racing. Maldonado won his first race at Monaco that year and earned a reputation for being fast but unpredictable, a reputation he carried throughout his career in elite motorsport.

Winning the sprint race at Spa in 2008 was the highlight of his second season in GP2 after joining Piquet Sports, while his move to the competitive ART team for 2009 saw him finish sixth overall with two wins.

In his 2010 season with Rapax, Maldonado finally improved as he won six races en route to the title. Between that and his massive financial backing from Venezuelan oil company PDVSA, Williams opted to sign Maldonado in place of Hulkenberg for 2011.

Maldonado's error-prone reputation continued to hang over him, with the Venezuelan taking just two points before claiming a stunning win at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix: Maldonado didn't lose a wheel while Fernando Alonso kept the pressure on throughout the race.

Despite the win, Maldonado failed to repeat the result and finished 15th overall that season. In 2013 he only managed one point.

A move to Lotus for 2014 wasn't very successful either, despite doubling his overall score (to 2 points!). His final season in 2015 earned him 27 points over six points.

Without racing in 2017, Maldonado became a test driver for Pirelli before moving to the World Endurance Championship in 2018. Maldonado, who drove for Dragonspeed in the LMP2 class, won the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona alongside his Dragonspeed teammates.

However, Maldonado's driving opportunities appear to have dried up since then as there have been no top-level motorsport appearances since 2019.

Romain Grosjean (2011)

Grosjean switched from Formula 3 to GP2 in 2008 and made an immediate impression by winning his fourth race and finishing fourth.

In 2009 Grosjean continued that momentum driving for Campos & Addax and was called upon by Renault F1 Team to replace Nelson Piquet Junior when the real story behind the controversial 2008 Singapore Grand Prix was unearthed.

However, Grosjean was dropped by Renault at the end of 2009 and instead signed former Addax teammate Vitaly Petrov.

This meant Grosjean had to struggle to drive and he found one in GT1 and also with DAMS in the Auto GP series. The connection with DAMS proved essential as he returned to GP2 with DAMS in 2011 and had a dominant season winning five races and taking the title by 35 points.

Grosjean was thus given the green light to return to F1 and returned to the Renault team (now called Lotus) as he was working with Kimi Raikkonen.

Grosjean had a choppy start to his F1 career, proving he was capable of clinching big podiums and being involved in frequent crashes, leading Mark Webber to dub him a 'first-round nutcase'. By causing a massive first corner crash at Spa, Grosjean became the only driver in recent history to be banned from racing for his driving style.

The ban seemed to calm Grosjean, who put in an excellent season in 2013, much more to match the performances of an increasingly disinterested Raikkonen. A consistent podium finisher in recent races, Grosjean finished seventh overall, the highest point of his F1 career.

Two years of struggle followed in 2014 and 2015 when the Lotus stopped boiling, but Grosjean was offered a new lifeline when American team Haas entered the fray. Grosjean became one of the midfield heroes between 2016 and 2020, occasionally sending flashy units to prominent positions.

However, with Haas in need of a cash injection for 2021, Grosjean was dropped when the team replaced both drivers with rookies. Grosjean's F1 career ended one race early due to a horrific fireball crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix that left his hands burned.

Without driving F1 for 2021, Grosjean switched to IndyCar and claimed three podiums in a part-time program. For 2022, Grosjean joins favorites Andretti Autosport and is now competing full-time in the American series.

David Valsecchi (2012)

The enthusiastic Italian competed in GP2 between 2008 and 2012 with teams including Durango, Addax, iSport and Caterham. Despite winning every year except 2009, it wasn't until 2012 that Valsecchi really came to life, winning four races en route to the title.

Valsecchi competed with HRT in the Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi at the end of the 2010 season and took part in practice with Caterham for the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix. Valsecchi signed up as a test driver for the Lotus team in 2013.

With Kimi Raikkonen sitting out the last few races of the year, Valsecchi was hoping to get the nod to replace him. However, with the team concerned about its position in the constructors' championship, experienced Finn Heikki Kovalainen was given the cockpit - but it didn't make much of a difference as he didn't score any points either.

Aside from a handful of races at Blancpain in 2016, Valsecchi hasn't competed in top-level motorsport since: he became a broadcaster by joining Sky Italia in 2016 and hasn't looked back on that race since.

Fabio Leimer (2013)

Leimer won the FP2 Championship for a fourth time while driving for Racing Engineering. With three wins and regular podiums, his 201-point tally was enough to beat Sam Bird by 20 points late in the season.

But while Bird had a successful motorsport career, Leimer's career collapsed almost immediately after winning the title.

Joining Rebellion Racing in the WEC in 2014, the first half of the championship went by without a single point for him and his teammates, although the second half of the year saw him earn 19 points overall and 17th overall.

Leimer was due to switch to Japanese Super Formula in 2015 but financial troubles meant his contract with Mugen was terminated before the season started.

Signed as Manor's reserve driver for 2015, he competed in FP1 at the Hungarian Grand Prix and contested two races in the Formula E Championship for Virgin.

Leimer's most recent notable race came at Mugello in 2017 when he won a lap of the Pirelli Pro Trophy in a Ferrari 488.

Jolyon Palmer (2014)

The British driver, the son of F1 driver Jonathan Palmer, won the GP2 title in 2014 driving for DAMS.

With four wins and three pole positions, he beat Stoffel Vandoorne by 47 points.

While testing with Force India at the end of that season, he signed with Lotus for 2015, becoming a test and reserve driver behind full-time drivers Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado.

When Renault took over the team that year, Palmer received the impetus to be promoted to racer for 2016 as he would be competing alongside Kevin Magnussen.

It has not been a good year for either driver, although Palmer did not fare as well as Magnussen: the Dane managed to add seven points to Palmer's only point for tenth place at Sepang.

The pattern continued in 2017, with Magnussen scoring 19 points in five finishes while Palmer only managed a sixth point in Singapore.

While it was a good result, it did little to save Palmer's career and he was shown the 2018 door. Palmer, who joined the BBC as a pundit, left his racing career behind as his media career took off: he is now a regular. Contributor to the official F1 website and his duties at the BBC.

Stoffel Vandoorne (2015)

Belgian racer Stoffel Vandoorne, driving for ART, drove one of the most dominant GP2 campaigns ever as he claimed seven wins in 2015. This gave him a 160-point lead in the series, winning with four races to go.

Returning to Super Formula in 2016, Vandoorne got his first taste of Formula 1 when he replaced Fernando Alonso in the season opener in Bahrain, taking home a point on his debut. He also finished fourth overall in the Japanese championship.

Jenson Button's retirement at the end of 2016 gave Vandoorne the chance to drive full-time in Formula 1 and team up with Alonso. Although Vandoorne enjoyed two reasonably respectable seasons alongside the veteran world champion, Vandoorne's inability to match Alonso's exploits knocked him unconscious in late 2018.

Vandoorne joined the Mercedes-placeholder HWA Racelab team in Formula E almost immediately, finishing 16th overall in his first season before becoming a works driver for Mercedes after fully stepping in in 2019.

A win in Berlin helped Vandoorne to second in the table before falling to ninth in the 2020/21 season. However, Vandoorne was a championship winner again recently when he was crowned 2021/22 Formula E World Champion.

It is ready to race for DS Penske in the next Formula E season.

Away from the all-electric championship, Vandoorne also raced for Jota Sport in LMP2 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing second in class in 2021, followed by a third place finish in LMP1 with SMP Racing in 2019.

Peter Gasley (2016)

The Red Bull junior drove for Prema in GP2 in 2016, relegating Antonio Giovinazzi to the title by just eight points. 2016 was Gasly's third year in the category, making his Caterham debut in 2014 and competing with DAMS in 2015.

Gasly switched to Super Formula in 2017 and put in a very impressive season to finish second overall – missing the title by just half a point, his lack of points in his first two races was an early stumbling block to recovery.

Gasly also had a chance to impress in Formula E during a back-up performance with Renault e.Dams as he finished seventh in his first race before nearly finishing on the podium in his second, a last-corner mistake meant that he fourth place. .

Such successes were enough to convince Red Bull to give him a chance in F1 and Gasly made his debut as a replacement for Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso in late 2017.

Gasly, who scored five points with Toro Rosso in 2018 and has 29 points overall, has been transferred to Red Bull as a replacement for Daniel Ricciardo, who left with Max Verstappen.

However, Gasly struggled to keep up and came under increasing pressure to deliver as the season progressed. With his self-confidence noticeably shattered, Red Bull sent him back to Toro Rosso, where he has been racing ever since, although the team is now called AlphaTauri.

The Gasly star, who became a race winner by winning the Italian Grand Prix in 2020, has developed remarkably as a key midfield player and will now embark on a new journey with Alpine in 2023.