2016 GP2 Series

2016 GP2 Series season
Previous:	2015	Next:	2017
Parent series: Formula One Feeder series: GP3 Series

File:Takuya Izawa GP2 2014 Silverstone 002.jpg

ART Grand Prix will start the season as the defending teams' champions.

The 2016 GP2 Series season is be the twelfth season of the GP2 Series, a motor racing feeder series that is be run in support of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship. It is the final season for the Dallara GP2/11 chassis package that debuted in 2011. It is also the final season for the current Mecachrome 4.0 Litre V8 normally-aspirated engine package that debuted in 2005 before the planned introduction of the new GP2 Series Mecachrome V6 twin-turbocharged engine formula in 2017.

ART Grand Prix is the defending teams' champions after securing the title–their fourth in the championship–at the series' second visit to the Bahrain International Circuit in 2015.

Teams and drivers

Team	No.	Driver	Rounds
ART Grand Prix	1	Nobuharu Matsushita	1–2
	2	Sergey Sirotkin	1–2
Racing Engineering	3	Norman Nato	1–2
	4	Jordan King	1–2
DAMS	5	Alex Lynn	1–2
	6	Nicholas Latifi	1–2
Pertamina Campos Racing	7	Mitch Evans	1–2
	8	Sean Gelael	1–2
Russian Time	9	Raffaele Marciello	1–2
	10	Artem Markelov	1–2
Rapax	11	Gustav Malja	1–2
	12	Arthur Pic	1–2
Trident	14	Philo Paz Armand	1–2
	15	Luca Ghiotto	1–2
Status Grand Prix	16	TBA	TBA
	17	TBA	TBA
Carlin	18	Sergio Canamasas	1–2
	19	Marvin Kirchhöfer	1–2
Prema Racing	20	Antonio Giovinazzi	1–2
	21	Pierre Gasly	1–2
MP Motorsport	22	Oliver Rowland	1–2
	23	Daniël de Jong	1–2
Arden International	24	Nabil Jeffri	1–2
	25	Jimmy Eriksson	1–2

Driver changes

Changing teams

• Sergio Canamasas, who raced for MP Motorsport, Hilmer Motorsport and Daiko Team Lazarus in 2015, switched to Carlin.
• Mitch Evans and Sean Gelael, who drove for Russian Time and Carlin respectively in 2015, moved to Campos Racing.
• Pierre Gasly, who spent the 2015 season with DAMS, moved to newcomers Prema Racing.
• Nicholas Latifi, who took part in three rounds of the 2015 season with MP Motorsport, switched to a full time seat with DAMS.
• Gustav Malja, who raced for Trident and Rapax in 2015, switched Formula Renault 3.5 Series to race full time with Rapax.
• Raffaele Marciello, who raced for Trident in 2015, moved to Russian Time.
• Norman Nato, who raced for Arden International in 2015, switched to Racing Engineering.
• Arthur Pic, who raced for Campos in 2014 and 2015, switched to Rapax.
• Oliver Rowland, who previously raced part-time for MP Motorsport and Status Grand Prix, is contesting the full season with MP Motorsport, with backing from Renault.
• Sergey Sirotkin, who finished third in 2015, moved from Rapax to defending champions ART Grand Prix.

Entering GP2

• 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 Series competitor Philo Paz Armand joined the series with Trident.
• GP3 Series race winner Jimmy Eriksson made his series début with Arden International.
• 2015 GP3 runner-up Luca Ghiotto graduated to the series with Trident.
• 2015 European Formula 3 runner-up Antonio Giovinazzi made his début in the series with Prema Racing.
• Nabil Jeffri joined the series with Arden International.
• Marvin Kirchhöfer, who placed third in the 2014 and 2015 GP3 Series joined the series with Carlin.

Leaving GP2

• Nathanaël Berthon left Lazarus and the series to join the FIA World Endurance Championship with G-Drive Racing.
• Rene Binder left MP Motorsport.
• Rio Haryanto left Campos Racing and the series to join Formula One team Manor Racing.
• André Negrão and Dean Stoneman left Arden and Carlin and the series to join the Indy Lights with Schmidt Peterson Motorsports and Andretti Autosport.
• Richie Stanaway and Marco Sørensen, who raced for Status Grand Prix and Carlin, left to join the FIA World Endurance Championship with Aston Martin Racing.
• 2015 season champion Stoffel Vandoorne will leave the series as the reigning champion is not permitted to continue competing in the series. He will be joining the Super Formula with Docomo Team Dandelion Racing.

Team changes

• Lazarus left the series at the end of the 2015 season, with their place taken by Prema Racing.
• Hilmer Motorsport left the series at the end of the 2015 season. As no replacement team could be found, the grid was left at twenty-four cars.

Calendar

On 4 March 2016, the full calendar was revealed with eleven rounds taking place.

Round		Circuit/Location	Country	Date	Supporting
1	Feature	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona	Spain	14 May	Spanish Grand Prix
	Sprint			15 May
2	Feature	Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo	Monaco	27 May	Monaco Grand Prix
	Sprint			28 May
3	Feature	Baku City Circuit, Baku	Azerbaijan	18 June	European Grand Prix
	Sprint			19 June
4	Feature	Red Bull Ring, Spielberg	Austria	2 July	Austrian Grand Prix
	Sprint			3 July
5	Feature	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	United Kingdom	9 July	British Grand Prix
	Sprint			10 July
6	Feature	Hungaroring, Budapest	Hungary	23 July	Hungarian Grand Prix
	Sprint			24 July
7	Feature	Hockenheimring, Hockenheim	Germany	30 July	German Grand Prix
	Sprint			31 July
8	Feature	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Francorchamps	Belgium	27 August	Belgian Grand Prix
	Sprint			28 August
9	Feature	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza	Italy	3 September	Italian Grand Prix
	Sprint			4 September
10	Feature	Sepang International Circuit, Sepang	Malaysia	1 October	Malaysian Grand Prix
	Sprint			2 October
11	Feature	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates	26 November	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
	Sprint			27 November

Calendar changes

• The series returned to the Hockenheimring in support of the German Grand Prix, and the Sepang International Circuit.
  • With the return to Germany, the second Bahrain round—which had filled in as a replacement event in 2015—was removed from the calendar.
• The rounds at the Bahrain International Circuit and the Sochi Autodrom were discontinued after the Bahrain and Russian Grands Prix were brought forward to the start of the Formula One season.
• The series will make its début at the Baku City Circuit in support of the returning European Grand Prix.

Results and standings

Season summary

Round		Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Report
1	F	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya	Pierre Gasly	Norman Nato	Norman Nato	Racing Engineering	Report
	S			Pierre Gasly	Alex Lynn	DAMS
2	F	Circuit de Monaco	Sergey Sirotkin	Artem Markelov	Artem Markelov	Russian Time	Report
	S			Nobuharu Matsushita	Nobuharu Matsushita	ART Grand Prix
3	F	Baku City Circuit					Report
	S
4	F	Red Bull Ring					Report
	S
5	F	Silverstone Circuit					Report
	S
6	F	Hockenheimring					Report
	S
7	F	Hungaroring					Report
	S
8	F	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps					Report
	S
9	F	Autodromo Nazionale Monza					Report
	S
10	F	Sepang International Circuit					Report
	S
11	F	Yas Marina Circuit					Report
	S

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top 10 classified finishers in the Feature race, and to the top 8 classified finishers in the Sprint race. The pole-sitter in the feature race also received four points, and two points were given to the driver who set the fastest lap inside the top ten in both the feature and sprint races. No extra points were awarded to the pole-sitter in the sprint race.

Feature race points

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Pole	FL
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1	4	2

Sprint race points

Points were awarded to the top 8 classified finishers.

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	FL
Points	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1	2

Drivers' championship

Pos. Driver ESP MON BAK AUT GBR HUN GER BEL ITA MYS ABU Points 1 Norman Nato 1 16 2 6 49 2 Artem Markelov 4 4 1 8 48 3 Alex Lynn 6 1 4 5 41 4 Pierre Gasly 3 2 15 13 33 5 Raffaele Marciello 8 5 6 3 28 6 Nobuharu Matsushita 11 8 8 1 22 7 Oliver Rowland 10 6 3 7 22 8 Nicholas Latifi 2 7 Ret Ret 20 9 Marvin Kirchhöfer 15 15 7 2 18 10 Mitch Evans 12 14 5 4 18 11 Jordan King 7 3 Ret 16 16 12 Sergio Canamasas 5 9 12 10 10 13 Sergey Sirotkin Ret 11 Ret Ret 4 14 Gustav Malja 9 10 14 12 2 15 Daniël de Jong 14 17 9 11 2 16 Arthur Pic 13 Ret 10 9 1 17 Antonio Giovinazzi 18 Ret 11 18 0 18 Luca Ghiotto Ret 12 Ret 14 0 19 Sean Gelael 17 13 13 Ret 0 20 Jimmy Eriksson 16 19 Ret 15 0 21 Philo Paz Armand Ret Ret 16 Ret 0 22 Nabil Jeffri 19 18 Ret 17 0 Pos. Driver ESP MON BAK AUT GBR HUN GER BEL ITA MYS ABU Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

Notes:

• † — Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Teams' championship

Pos. Team No. ESP MON BAK AUT GBR HUN GER BEL ITA MYS ABU Points 1 Russian Time 9 8 5 6 3 76 10 4 4 1 8 2 Racing Engineering 3 1 16 2 6 65 4 7 3 Ret 16 3 DAMS 5 6 1 4 5 61 6 2 7 Ret Ret 4 Prema Racing 20 18 Ret 11 18 33 21 3 2 15 13 5 Carlin 18 5 9 12 10 28 19 15 15 7 2 6 MP Motorsport 22 10 6 3 7 24 23 14 17 9 11 7 ART Grand Prix 1 11 8 8 1 22 2 Ret 11 Ret Ret 8 Pertamina Campos Racing 7 12 14 5 4 18 8 17 13 13 Ret 9 Rapax 11 9 10 14 12 3 12 13 Ret 10 9 10 Trident 14 Ret Ret 16 Ret 0 15 Ret 12 Ret 14 11 Arden International 24 19 18 Ret 17 0 25 16 19 Ret 15  — Status Grand Prix 16 DNP DNP DNP DNP 0 17 DNP DNP DNP DNP Pos. Team No. ESP MON BAK AUT GBR HUN GER BEL ITA MYS ABU Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap

Notes:

• † — Drivers did not finish the race, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

External links

• GP2 Series official website