GP2 team eyes IndyCar
Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon doesn't want the team to run American Alexander Rossi because he feels Rossi is as good as Vettel and belongs in F1 |
According to Racer.com, Alexander Rossi's GP2, Racing Engineering, is investigating a possible IndyCar venture in 2017.
Racer reports that the Spanish team, owned by Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon, claimed the 2008 and 2013 GP2 championships, currently sits second in the standings with American Alexander Rossi, and is in the midst of a feasibility study to determine if an IndyCar program should complement its ongoing European open-wheel programs.
"We're looking into it, but it looks unlikely before 2017 if we're doing it on our own because of another project we're going after right now," Orleans-Borbon told RACER.
"Are we interested? Absolutely. We're not in a position to enter the series today, yet, because I don't have any drivers in GP2 or other series that are prepared to help make it happen. And I would be open to working with an IndyCar team that has one car and we could come together to put a second car in the series. That's where we are."
"We've spoken to a lot of sponsors, but we're foreigners – we're across the pond, so it has been hard to get anything started," Orleans-Borbon told Racer. "My friend Trevor Carlin has been very lucky because he has a wealthy driver who made America possible, but without him, I don't know if he would be there. If we can become an option for drivers who haven't found a place with the IndyCar team, and want to try something built more around them, that's what we would try to do."
"I would love to have Alex [Rossi] for something like that, but I don't want to even entertain that thought because I want to see him in F1, because that's where he belongs," he continued. "I've been in this sport for 30 years and I've run a lot of guys – Sebastian Vettel and Justin Wilson – and you get a feel for the special ones when they come along. And Alex, from the first time we tested him, he was off the scale. He deserves to be in F1."