Ones to watch

ROMAIN GROSJEAN (GP2)

He was Fernando Alonso’s Renault team-mate in the second part of 2009 after Nelson Piquet was ‘moved on’, but with a best finish of 13th Grosjean was dropped in favour of Vitaly Petrov for 2010. Two years in GT1, winning the 2010 Auto GP Series and GP2 in 2011 has convinced some that he deserves another F1 chance. Grosjean has been one of many Renault test drivers this year and team principal Eric Boullier has some tough decisions to make for 2012 with Bruno Senna, Petrov, Grosjean and possibly Robert Kubica as race contenders.

VALTTERI BOTTAS (GP3)

After a sluggish start to the year, Bottas won four of the last seven races to clinch the 2011 GP3 title ahead of Brit James Calado. The Finn also has two Masters of F3 victories under his belt and won the 2008 Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup and North European Cup. Results are important, of course, but crucially he has been a Williams F1 test driver for the past two years. With so few seats opening up in F1 a good relationship with a team is vital. If he can stamp his authority on GP2 in 2012/13 he’ll be an interesting prospect for F1 teams.