The Formula 1 aspirations of Filipino-Swiss Jr. F1 racing driver Marlon Stockinger shifts to a higher gear today with the staging of the 2015 Status Grand Prix (GP2) season in Austria.
Twenty-six drivers representing 13 teams that will race over 10 rounds are participating in the said event. Entering the Austria event, GP 2 has already completed three rounds, which started last April in Bahrain. Stockinger, 24, is joined by New Zealand’s 23-year-old driver Richie Stanaway for Status Grand Prix this year.
According to Stockinger'’s mother Egin, his son has been adjusting well in this GP2 series, noting that he is still in his rookie year as a GP2 participant. “It’s very challenging because the car he now uses is heavier, and this series is different from where he used to race. But overall as a rookie driver in a series of GP2, he is doing very well,” she said. “I talked to him four days ago. He is confident and hopeful that he will earn points in this series. Of course, it will be tough but he is doing everything he can.”
The GP2 Season is considered as the support series for the 2015 Formula One World Championship. Marlon Stockinger is a junior driver of F1 team Lotus. The lone Filipino F1 bet got his maiden victory during the 2012 GP3 Series in Monte Carlo while racing for Status Grand Prix.
Meantime, Stockinger will return to the country June 25, in time for Slipstream 2.0 happening two days later on the 27th and presented by his main corporate sponsor, Globe Telecom.
Slipstream 2.0 is a one-day event for the public, particularly motoring aficionados, where Stockinger is set to drive his Lotus World Series racecar around the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig.
The event will be a sequel to last year’s exhibition of fast cars and fancy vehicles which attracted thousands of enthusiasts and their families who saw history in the making by witnessing a World Series car burn rubber on the streets of Manila.
