Race Incident

This year’s GP2 champion, 29 year old Giorgio Pantano is upset by the lack of attention he’s getting from the Formula 1 teams.

“I challenge anyone to produce a resume as mine”, he told Autosprint.

So what does Pantano have in his resume, you might ask? How about this:

1993 – Winner of the European Kart Cup, Italian Championship and the Rainbow Trophy (unofficial World Championship for Cadets) in karting

1994 – Italian champion and winners of the Five Continents Cup in karting

1995 – European Formula A champion in karting

1996 – European Formula A champion and second in the World Cup in karting

1997 – Third in Formula Super A World Championship

1998 – Second in the Formula Super A World Cup

1999 – Third in the Formula Super A World Cup

2000 – German Formula 3 Champion

2002 – Second in the Formula 3000 championship

2003 – Third in the Formula 3000 championship

2004 – 14 races for Jordan in Formula 1

2007 – GP2 champion

Pantano argues that Sebastien Buemi and Bruno Senna is now competing for Formula 1 seats without having accomplished nothing much. While he has a point, they are also much younger than Pantano and might have a very bright future ahead of him. Getting a second chance in Formula 1 at 30 might be hard when the F1 teams are looking at 20 year olds.

If Pantano doesn’t make it to Formula 1 in 2009 he will be the first GP2 champion who won’t be on the grid the year after they won the championship. The previous champions are so far Nico Rosberg, Lewis Hamilton and Timo Glock — all in F1.

I think it’s time for Pantano to look west. In 2005 he did two road courses races in the IRL for Chip Ganassi. In his second race he qualified second and finished in fourth. The Ganassi team should be aware of his potential.