GP2 Feature - Driving Home For Christmas03/11/2006

This isn't the time of year for the GP2 teams to sit back and prepare for Christmas. To succeed in next year's Championship, they need to be laying the foundations now, during the winter test sessions.

Potential race drivers for '07 need to be tested and new set-up solutions have to be tried in conjunction with Bridgestone's latest-spec tyres. It's busy-busy-busy for everyone involved in the Series.

This week saw the final GP2 test of the year at Paul Ricard, and it was Luca Filippi (above) who stole the headlines. The Italian topped the timesheets on both days of the test, despite swapping teams midway through the test.

On day one, Filippi topped the times for Durango with a time of 1:13.630. He then swapped to Arden International for day two and, after getting used to the team in the morning, he jumped to the top of the timesheets late in the afternoon session, with a time 0.2s slower than he'd managed the previous day.

"The test has gone very well for me," said Filippi. "The teams listened to me and I was able to lap quickly in both cars."

On day one, the fastest rookie was Andy Soucek, who had planned to drive for ART Grand Prix until the team withdrew from the test following the death of Steeve Marcel, one of their engineers. Soucek found a spare seat at Super Nova and impressed with the eighth fastest time.

On day two, the accolade of top rookie went to Bruno Senna, the nephew of three-time F1 world champion Ayrton. Bruno was another driver due to test for ART this week, but he still got straight down to business behind the wheel of an Arden International car on day two, setting the third fastest time.

"I wasn't so quick in the morning, " said Bruno, who contested the British Formula 3 Championship this year. "The team was cautious about listening to my feedback because I didn't know the car. But in the afternoon I told them what could make me quicker, and after they made the changes I was quick.

"When I was quick, they started listening to me more, and they were happy because they said that they have never really run well at Paul Ricard."

There is now a brief break until the penultimate pre-Christmas test at Jerez. A chance for the teams to put their 2007 plans to the test.