Following several lacklustre seasons, the GP2 Asia Series has finally been merged into the Main Series.
A non-entity of a 2011 season brought the doors down on the Championship, thanks mainly to the collapse of two rounds in Bahrain. After an opening weekend in Abu Dhabi in February, the concluded at Imola in Northern Italy.
With the introduction of a new chassis package earlier this year, the GP2 Asia series saw a full compliment on the grid; however the line-up for the previous three seasons has often been less than stellar.
All is not lost for GP2 Asia – while that Championship has disappeared, its Abu Dhabi round has been soaked up by the Main Series, with the possibility of a singe stand-alone event should the Bahrain Grand Prix not go ahead next year.
The Championship was initially created to stimulate Asian interest in the higher levels of junior level motorsport and to provide a window for Asian drivers to showcase their talents on a wider scale.
In this, the series failed. Of the four seasons the GP2 Asia Championship contested, only fourteen drivers from the Asian / Middle Eastern continents took part (some of whom did not stay around long). From that fourteen, only Kamui Kobayashi is currently in Formula 1, while Indian driver Karun Chandhok is the reserve drive driver at Team Lotus.
