The 2016 GP2 Series season was the fiftieth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also twelfth and final season under the GP2 Series moniker, a motor racing feeder series that was run in support of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship. It was the final season run under the "GP2 Series" name, with the championship being rebranded as the FIA Formula 2 Championship from 2017. It was also originally scheduled to be the final season for the Dallara GP2/11 chassis that was introduced in 2011 and the Mecachrome 4.0 litre V8 normally-aspirated engine package that débuted in the maiden season of the series in 2005 before a brand new chassis and engine package was introduced for 2017, however due to another cost-cutting, the series announced it would keep the current chassis and engine package for one more season.
ART Grand Prix started the season as 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.[1] Prema Racing won the Teams' championship, their first in the series and first attempt, while Pierre Gasly won the Drivers' championship.
Pierre Gasly took 4 race wins and the championship. The most races were won by Gasly’s teammate Antonio Giovinazzi, who took 5 victories, Sergey Sirotkin took victories at Mogyoród in the sprint race, and in Hockenheim - he took pole position and won the race. Alex Lynn got 3 sprint races wins, Racing Engineering drivers Jordan King and Norman Nato took 2 race wins each, and Luca Ghiotto, Artem Markelov, Mitch Evans and Nobuharu Matsushita each got 1 race win.
Team | No. | Driver name | Rounds |
---|---|---|---|
ART Grand Prix[2] | 1 | Nobuharu Matsushita[3] | 1–3, 5–11 |
René Binder[4] | 4 | ||
2 | Sergey Sirotkin[5] | All | |
Racing Engineering[2] | 3 | Norman Nato[6] | All |
4 | Jordan King[7] | All | |
DAMS[2] | 5 | Alex Lynn[8] | All |
6 | Nicholas Latifi[8] | All | |
Pertamina Campos Racing[a] | 7 | Mitch Evans[9] | All |
8 | Sean Gelael[9] | All | |
Russian Time[2] | 9 | Raffaele Marciello[10] | All |
10 | Artem Markelov[9] | All | |
Rapax[2] | 11 | Gustav Malja[11] | All |
12 | Arthur Pic[12] | 1–9 | |
Johnny Cecotto Jr.[13][b] | 10–11 | ||
Trident[2] | 14 | Philo Paz Armand[14] | All |
15 | Luca Ghiotto[15] | All | |
Carlin[2] | 18 | Sergio Canamasas[16] | 1–6, 8–11 |
René Binder[17] | 7 | ||
19 | Marvin Kirchhöfer[18] | 1–10 | |
Louis Delétraz[19] | 11 | ||
Prema Racing[20] | 20 | Antonio Giovinazzi[21] | All |
21 | Pierre Gasly[22] | All | |
MP Motorsport[2] | 22 | Oliver Rowland[23] | All |
23 | Daniël de Jong[24] | All | |
Arden International[2] | 24 | Nabil Jeffri[25] | All |
25 | Jimmy Eriksson[25] | 1–9 | |
Emil Bernstorff[26] | 11 |
On 4 March 2016, the full calendar was revealed with eleven rounds taking place.[36]
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.
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 |
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 |
|
|
Notes:
|
|
Notes:
Ex-GP2 journeyman Andre Negrao, from Brazil, at 22.0128 admitted he was behind the eight ball learning ovals, but felt better by the end of the test.