Pantano now eyes GP2

UPDATE Giorgio Pantano told ItaliaRacing.net: "I'm doing this test with the British Super Nova team to get to know the car, and to understand if something interesting can come up for the season. I haven't driven for several months, so I'm out of practice. But physically I'm fit, since I haven't missed a single day in the gym." 03/01/05 It was believed that Giorgio Pantano was poised to join fellow F1 refugee Gianmaria Bruni in Coloni's GP2 team this season, but the Italian team signed Mathias Lauda to complete its line-up. Jordan F1 refugee Pantano, a former Coloni F3000 driver, had been rumored to be rejoining the Italian team. He had been expected to follow Bruni in deciding to step down a level in order to re-establish their reputation, but now seemingly has just one option remaining in GP2 and even that is slim. Another option for him is Champ Car but it is late in the game for that now and it is questionable whether he has enough funding for Champ Car.

With no races in Europe, and its focus on North America and the Pacific Rim, we expect the majority of Champ Car drivers will come from those parts of the world, not Europe and not the Middle East. Champ Car needs to find an Australian, a Korean and a Chinese driver for races in those countries, and it needs to find them now.