As far as teams went in the 2015 GP2 Series, there was really only one in it all year: ART Grand Prix. With series winner Stoffel Vandoorne not only did they beat the opposition, they pulverised them into submission. Vandoorne’s record-breaking seven race wins (including four consecutive feature race triumphs) and Japanese rookie Nobuharu Matsushita’s maiden win in Hungary secured an easy teams’ title ahead of nearest challengers Racing Engineering.
Consistency the key all year for Vandoorne
While ART and Vandoorne had been billed as unquestionable favourites since the back end of 2014, just how dominant the Franco-Belgian package would be only become apparent when the cars left Barcelona after the second round of the championship.
In a complete repeat of the opening round in Bahrain, Vandoorne had easily taken victory in the first race of the weekend after storming through qualifying to grab a second consecutive pole position. The Belgian then produced another fightback in the sprint race to finish second behind race winner Rio Haryanto.
Successive feature race wins in Monaco and Austria followed before the first signs of a possible slump in form surfaced for the McLaren junior driver. An off-weekend at Silverstone failed to yield a victory for the first time in the season as Rapax’s Sergey Sirotkin stole the show.
A damage limitation weekend in Hungary preceded a return to form at his home circuit in Spa-Francorchamps. Vandoorne re-established his dominance with a win in the truncated feature race – caused by Daniel de Jong’s massive crash at Blanchimont.
Then followed a remarkable show of consistency, scoring six podiums in the final seven races and wrapping up the title two rounds early in Sochi.
Two more race wins capped off a record-breaking year for the Belgian who helped secure the teams’ championship in the second Bahrain meeting, leading home team-mate Matsushita in the feature race.
Matsushita: Japan’s next F1 star?
Unlike his Japanese predecessor Takuya Izawa, Matsushita showed immediate promise in the second ART car. The 22 year-old qualified on the front row for the first round in Bahrain, 0.308s off the pole time of Vandoorne. And while the races didn’t quite go to plan, the 2014 All Japan F3 champion set fastest lap in the sprint race.
It took a while but Matsushita finally secured a well-deserved first podium at the Red Bull Ring with third, before taking his maiden win at the Hungaroring, having taken advantage of a reverse-grid pole to dash away from the competition.
His talent was confirmed with another podium in Bahrain, having staved off fierce pressure from Mitch Evans to finish second behind Vandoorne.
Post-season, Matsushita topped the time sheets in two of the three GP2 official test sessions, which surely sets the Japanese driver up for a potential title challenge in 2016.
